The Last Grandmaster
by genhoss
Summary: Waking from a magical coma after a decade and a half to a changed world, thrust into a situation where he has questions but no answers Ranma now has to battle the Angels and hope that he can piece together whats going on and hopefully unlock his curse.
1. Chapter 1

This fic is somewhere about halfway finished, I was going to finish it before posting it but RL got in the way. Some poeple might also reconize this from a forum posting from months ago but I have made a few minor adjustments since then.

Thanks to James Axelrad for his help with this fic.

Disclaimer I do not own Ranma 1/2 or NGE.

The Last Grandmaster

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Making small adjustments to her slightly off kilter balance in an effort to close in on a monstrous form that was slowly advancing through the city, Ranma tried to make sense of things. Her balance issue would probably work itself out and likely was related to having just woken up from nearly a decade and a half sleep. She still wasn't completely sure what had happened all she really knew was that the end result had left the most powerful of her friends, rivals and family in a coma as well as leaving anyone afflicted with a Jusendryo curse in locked their cursed forms.

That news had been shocking and more than a bit horrifying and the implications were just something that she did not want to think about. So she tried to put it out of her mind and focus at what she needed to do. Which was at the moment was hop rooftop to rooftop to close in one the gaint monster strolling through the city. She had always been good compartmentalizing things before to focus on the task at hand during the times she had been locked before. However the Kinjakan her right hand and the Gekkaja strapped across her back were like whispers, constantly reminding her that something had happened. What exactly she wasn't quite sure but something bad none the less.

Of course things had only been further hammered into place when Akane, the sole person there to greet her when she woke up started to explain things to her. Even worse is that she could definately detect a definate change in her. Gone was the sweet but decreasingly violent maniac that she had spent several years awkwardly courting through countless adventures. The person left in her stead was a woman in her mid-thirties, one that had been short and to the point about how things stood, barely giving her a chance to process one thing before moving on to the next.

She didn't want to believe it, missing out on fifteen years in a blink of an eye, where the last thing she did remember was sparring with Ryouga with Akane watching patiently in the background. Yet somehow she knew, the older Akane, Saffron's staffs, even the strange city she was leaping through were telling her something was different.

"_Of course seeing some sort of giant Kaju strolling through the city, shrugging off damage like Ryoga is kind of a big hint… That this isn't Nerima… Doesn't look like any section of Tokyo I've ever been to before…" _Ranma muttered to herself before coming to a brief stop to figure out her next move. She was rapidly approaching a section of the city filled with sky scrapers and due to her unfamiliarity with where ever she was the last thing she needed to do was jump herself into a dead end where she would then be forced to backtrack and lose time.

Having mentally traced a new route, one that would allow her to intercept the creature while maintaining the higher ground, the redhead started moving again with a small frown of worry on her face. Not worry for herself, despite the situation and her having just woken up after a decade and a half she felt great. No the worry was more for her fiancée, friends and family. She had only seen Akane so far but had been assured that the others were out there somewhere waiting for her to arrive.

"_Not sure what good they're going to be able to do… If their curses are locked like mine… I guess for once I'm lucky to just turn into a girl…" _Ranma thought to herself while holding back a shudder over the fates that had befallen her friends, "_Akane said that they were working on a way to unlock the curses… But that they needed time… Time they didn't have if that thing out there wasn't stopped…"_

"Akane…" Ranma muttered to herself with a shake of her head, "_There's something wrong with her… She's older and a lot taller than I remember… That's not quite it though, there's something else, something I'm not seeing... Sure it complicates things but we've already been through so much together… We have history... And I can tell that there was just something off about her, something about the way she asked me to go fight the giant monster… Like it was an order, something that I was supposed to do just because she told me to."_

Bracing herself as she came in for a landing several floors beneath the rooftop she had just left the pigtailed martial artist mentally griped_, "Even if she hadn't told me to go fight it I probably would have anyway… I mean that thing is massive and I doubt it just decided to pop in for some sushi…" _

Cutting herself out of her musings the redhead took a moment to notice a single aircraft making its way to the monster. Stalling on the rooftop she was currently on the cursed boy watched in a sort of detached curiosity as to what this single plane was going to do when the amassed forces she observed fighting it had been unable to stall the creatures advance.

Of course that curiosity quickly turned into alarm as soon as she saw a single bomb fall from the plane.

"No they wouldn't…"

"Sure nothing else seemed to be working…"

"They're going to nuke the city… Of all the day's to wake up…"

Panicking over the possibilities of being at ground zero of a nuclear strike the redhead tried to make a hasty retreat only to be caught mid stride as the bomb detonated sending shockwaves throughout the city.

Moments later

"Uhhhggg… Owe that hurt…" Ranma complained loudly to no one in particular as she began to shift herself out of the rubble she was now buried in only to pause in shock as a thought occurred to her.

"I'm alive?" Stepping out of the rubble while examining herself looking for any sign of the horrid injuries that were burned into her mind from the history books the redhead could not help but feel a little bit of overwhelming hysteria at the fact that she just took a nuclear blast head on and was still alive coming away with nothing but a few small cuts and bruises.

"I didn't even lose consciousness… well for very long anyway… but hey, I'm alive… In your face you damm dirty nuke… You can't kill me… Ha… Nothing can bring Ranma Saotome down." Staggering slightly to the left the redhead amended, "Okay so I'm a little queasy… But at least that monster is taken care of. I mean sure, I survived but that bomb hit that thing dead on… there's no way it survived that."

Slowly as if to directly spite the pigtailed teen the dust began to settle and the monstrous hulk of the Godzilla reject was revealed slowly moving forward seemly unhindered by the blast.

"Damm…" Ranma muttered instantly sobered due to the now even more daunting task at hand, "If that thing can take a nuke…"

/THWACKKK/

"Hey what did you do that for?" Ranma instantly griped before she looked up to see a very familiar panda, "Pop? That you?"

/GET A MOVE ON IT BOY/

flip

/THE OTHERS ARE NEARLY IN PLACE/

"Others?"

/YES OTHERS/ Genma signed with a sigh, he had been told of the difficulties involved with awaking his son and had even resigned himself to not having his boy's help when the monster arrived but a phone call from their base of operations had informed him that he was awake and heading towards them. However as the thing continued to make its way through the city unhindered he had grown concerned over Ranma having not yet arrived only for that concern to double when that bomb hit. Sighing again as he began to draw a rough map of the others locations while trying to express the plan on how they were intending to deal with it the aged panda just hoped that his son wouldn't have to ask many questions. Because those questions he could not answer and he did not want to lie.

Letting out a bitter snort at the sudden revelation of how five years of being awake and trapped as a panda while watching his only child sleep seemly frozen in time while others toiled away to free him had changed his views on what was important the cursed man tossed the sign to his son and made a gesture to follow him.

Ranma followed reluctantly wanting to further engage her father in conversation, to at least get some answers to the many questions that were floating through her mind and although most of them were fairly serious in nature her mind kept going back to the fact that somehow the large panda looked even larger than what she remembered.

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A few minutes later Genma came to a stop and hastily scribbled, /This is as far as I go boy/

"Pops?" Ranma asked in slight confusion and relief as she had thought that the panda had actually intended to fight alongside her. But if he was going to go and leave her then that put her more on familiar ground.

/The plan boy/

"Oh right…" Ranma muttered before gazing back down at the sign held in her left hand that had buildings and locations marked on them.

/Boy remember your training and don't hold anything back/

Flip

/Anything and everything goes/

Flip

/And I mean everything/

Ranma almost snorted in amusement at that if not for the now not even a block away monster in her path she just might have. Only to pause slightly in further consideration as her panda-fied father utilized the Umi sen ken to disappear from sight.

Sighing as she realized she wasn't going to be offered anymore information on what was happening the pigtailed martial artist set both staffs down at her feet and mustered all of her confidence for an opening attack.

"Moko Takabisha…" She called out, launching a medium sized blast down the street right into what she assumed was the creatures face. Wanting to capitalize on her momentary distraction she reached down retrieved the staffs at her feet and leapt forward, spring boarding off of a nearby flagpole in an effort to land on the beast.

Unfortunately for her though her shot to the beasts face didn't do anything but agitate the creature as it retaliated with a swing of one of its massive arms in a attempt to swat at her as if she was some annoying little mosquito.

Realizing that if she didn't do anything the massive arm was going to send her flying Ranma stabbed out with the Gekkaja and impaled the beasts arm intent on gaining a handhold. Almost immediately she realized her folly as the surface of the creatures arm slowly began to be encrusted in ice.

Now swinging one handed from the beasts arm Ranma managed to drive the Kinjakan into the creatures arm, stabilizing her position. Noticing a shadow rapidly descending from above the pigtailed martial artist kicked out with her legs, taking both staffs with her as she flew back through a blown out window of a building.

Rolling to her feet the redhead noticed right away that the instant freezing of the Gekkaja and the dehydrating powers of the Kinjakan had combined with the force of the monsters swatting down on its own arm to shatter off a good sized chunk of itself.

For a moment she just stood there watching in grim fascination as large chunks of flesh rained down onto the streets below. "Well… Whatever you are… You're not invulnerable…" Ranma muttered to herself before pressing her advantage by dropping both staves again and launching another Moko Takabisha, this one double the size of her last one.

This time instead of impacting how she expected it to, a semi translucent orange shield appeared in front of the beast. Before Ranma could vent her frustration though the demon lifted its undamaged arm and let loose with a swing, unleashing a long red beam that seemed to be acting like a sword.

Not wanting to get caught in whatever the thing was doing Ranma launched herself out and under the creatures swing, letting herself flow under it by the barest of margins as she brought up both staves in a gamble to relieve the thing of its glowing sword.

Fortunately for her, her gamble paid off, the powers of both staves once again combining with the creatures momentum to result in the thing losing a large part of the appendage and sending it flying out of sight. On the down side of her little gambit though she was now in an uncontrolled spin that left her rapidly approaching the rooftop of a five story building.

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Meanwhile in Nerv

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Gendo Ikari stood silently as he watched the UN leadership debate on their next move. He knew what that should be as there was only one way to defeat the angels and realistically should have already been given the go ahead to set NERV up as humanities last line of defense against the angels. However, there appeared to be a little hang-up with the chain of command. A little hang-up in the form of what appeared to be a young redheaded girl wielding two staffs. Apparently the higher ups wanted to wait and see what this new development would bring into play.

One very important thing he did note though was that none of the aged generals seemed to be bothered about the girl's presence, uncaring as to whether or not a new angel had been added to the playing field.

Under the cover of his glasses Gendo narrowed his eyes, while it was true that the old generals had not asked if the girl was an angel they at least had acted surprised enough to show that they had not been expecting this turn of events either.

"I bet you are wondering what is going on down there, Eh Ikari?"

"What I am wondering holds no relevance, only NERV is set up to properly combat the threat posed by the angels. All we are doing is wasting valuable time that could be best utilized with me attending to my duties."

"Be that as it may, allow me to indulge myself."

"General." Gendo signaled back holding back his irritation for the man.

"Do you perhaps remember a few years prior to second impact when Mt Horia suffered from a major landslide?"

"Yes, as I recall it was due to the fact of a previous unknown fault line within the earth's crust rearranging itself. This is Japan these things happen often enough."

"Ah, yes well, that's not entirely true. You see Ikari, there was a cover up. It was no fault line. What happened back then was the end result of a battle between two extremely powerful martial artists. The government at the time had decided that the majority of the population was not quite ready to know that there were others out there with the ability to topple mountains and so a cover story made, and as long as civilian collateral damage was kept to a respective minimum these high powered martial artists would remain to be rumors and myths to the majority of the populace."

Keeping his doubts about the girl's questionable humanity to himself Gendo asked. "If these so called martial artists were a viable asset why was I not briefed on the matter?"

"Because it was believed that none of them survived second impact." Gesturing to the large screen behind him the man added, "What we are witnessing could very well be the last grandmaster of a lost art."

Sensing an opportune moment Gendo replied, "Well then if I may suggest handing over control of this operation to me so I can reinforce this last tribute to a legacy to insure her survival."

Shooting a glance over to the two other leaders of the task force the aged general replied, "Very well Ikari, Control of this operation is being handed over to you."

Not allowing his smirk over his victory to show Gendo turned his head and nodded to a member of his staff resulting in the podium in which the UN task force leadership sat upon being lowered out of the room.

"Oh and Ikari, do try to keep that girl alive. It would be a shame is such a valuable asset and part of our rich cultural history were to be lost because of a mistake or misunderstanding."

Gendo almost growled but thankfully was able to keep his composure together long enough for the floor to seal back up, turning to another member of his staff he coldly stated, "Bring Unit 01 online and prep it for its pilot. And get me Doctor Akagi, I want confirmation that this girl is not an angel and I want it now."

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Ranma panted in exhaustion, her running battle spanning roof tops to street level and back again was starting to take its toll on her and despite her earlier success the creature seemed to be getting faster in generating its shield and now it seemed like the beast was starting to regenerate its damaged tissue.

But despite her being tired she already had a plan of action to take the thing out. It seemed that while the creature could spring up some sort of shield Ranma herself could pass through it as long as she wasn't attempting to launch an attack. The two keys she held clenched in her hands also seemed to be able to harm the oversized B movie reject if they made contact. "Alright… I got a plan… All I need to do is get ontop of the thing…" Looking up at the large form towering over her and the city she added with a grumble of irritation, "Easier said than done… I could have sworn that there were some really tall buildings around here…"

"HURRY THIS WAY… QUICKLY…"

"What?" Ranma questioned as she spun around only to gape in shock upon seeing the child form of his teacher hiding in a nearly collapsed building motioning for her. Fortunately her preservation instincts kicked in causing her to dash forward while yelling, "MISS NINOMIYA? What? YOU GOTTO GET OUT OF HERE…"

"RANMA DOWN… Happo Fifty-Yen Satsu…" Barely making it inside the makeshift bunker she was forced flat on the ground while her former teacher shot off one of her signature draining techniques. Continuing to roll further out of the way the redhead placed herself well out of range of the technique before taking a moment to look back at the creature whose advance had begun to stall to a crawl.

"Ranma, I will buy you some time for you to rest up, pay attention to me, there are others hidden along this demons path, use them to help but DO NOT allow them to be seen in the open."

The redhead nodded dumbly while she watched her teacher continue to age while absorbing the creatures energy. Seeing an aged Akane in the dark had been surreal but now watching her teachers face slowly begin to wrinkle as she pressed her technique was only hammering it home that she was missing a lot of information.

Grunting in exertion as she continued to absorb energy and age at an accelerated rate Hinako managed to grit out, "You need to pay attention to this technique and duplicate it if need be… I might not be here next time…" Finally unable to hold anymore the teacher shot out a menacing glare and growled out, "Happo No-Yen Coin Return…"

Putting aside the comment about a possible next time Ranma gawked at the size of the blast that shot forth from their hideout to hit the beast dead on sending it staggering backwards.

Seeing that the beast wasn't down and out and that she was still swirling with the energy she had absorbed Hinako repeated, "Happo No-Yen Coin Return…" Seeing the beast stagger back once more the aged English teacher screeched out, "I DO NOT LIKE DELINGQUINTS IN MY CITY. HAPPO NO-YEN COIN RETURN… GO RANMA… DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME… GO…"

This time Ranma stumbled in awe over the size of the attack coming from his teacher and was relatively sure that he would have been a sure goner if she had ever directed such a blast at him. As it was the blast had only managed to stall the creature somewhat as it was already restarting its advance. Taking only a brief moment to ensure his teacher was okay Ranma went back out into the open and picked up a nearby chunk of concrete, roughly the size of a small car, and proceeded to hurl it at the monster with all her strength to get its attention.

/thwack/

"Ow hey…" Ranma muttered as she felt a small pebble impact the side of her head. Glancing in the general direction that the stone had come from the redhead had to force herself to not call out. Instead she leapt up onto a light post before bounding up and through a window on a five story building. "Hey Pcha…" She started before trailing off in shock at the sight of her rival/friend, "What happened to you… You're huge…" this…"

"Bwee…" Ryoga growled out in irritation before biting down on Ranma's thigh.

"Hey… Geesh… Sorry Ryoga, I just woke up I haven't really had much of a chance to really think about things." Ranma muttered as she continued to stare at the now very not a piglet cursed form of her friend.

Grunting a reply that was lost in translation to human ears the currently locked pig leapt onto a nearby counter and began to glow with a sickly green energy.

Snapping out of the self-imposed daze she had been in due to the apparent changes that had happened from her perspective overnight Ranma asked, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble try to hit one of that damm things knee's, I got a plan but I need to bring that thing down to a more manageable level before I can do it."

"BWEE BWE BWEEEE…"

"Call me crazy but I think I understood that." Ranma shot out before the whole building was rocked with shockwave that sent her flying.

Recovering in midair the pigtailed teen shot a concerned glance behind herself only to sigh in relief that while Ryoga had been hurdled through the air just the same as she had someone managed to stealthily intercept the porcine. Muttering a thanks to her father, she allowed herself to tumble back down into the street where she was forced back on the defensive so as to not give the thing another chance to hit her with one of whatever in the hell she had nearly just been hit with.

"What I really need to do is stop running and bring this thing down." Wanting to test the things reflexes Ranma proceeded to use a zig zagging stop and go maneuver that would hopefully give her some idea as to how fast the creature could aim the not so little exploding trick it had dealt out.

Pausing just briefly to glance back the redhead was again caught nearly off guard as the behemoth sent an explosion within a hundred yards of herself consequently sending her skidding across the pavement and down the street. Jerkily climbing back to her feet the current girl grinned. While it was true that she had been caught up in the explosion she had also managed to plant the Gekkaja in the creatures path leading to a rapid spread of thick heavy ice beneath the monsters feet.

Feeling her confidence swelling over the fact that she had the thing right where she wanted it Ranma cried out a determined, "MOKO TAKA BISHA" Mere nano-seconds away from following up her attack the ground beneath her feet began to rumble and shake, causing her to pause and look down only to see a seam in the pavement rapidly spreading open. She stood there teetering on one leg for just a brief moment before being able to regain her balance and retreat to somewhat higher ground.

"What the heck was that?" The redhead griped to herself as she attempted to swing behind the massive beast to retrieve the Gekkaja from its place in the ground, with the hopes that whatever the thing rising out of the ground behind her was on her side. Unfortunately in the time she had managed to double back to retrieve the staff the creature had begun moving again. This time though instead of coming after her like she had expected it to, it shifted targets in favor of attacking what looked like some sort of giant robot with an extension cord coming out of its back.

Not one to let the opportunity pass her by Ranma dashed forward with all her speed, spring boarding off the side of a building to land directly on the back of the creature's leg. Focusing her ki in the hopes that the giant would not feel her she slowly climbed around to the monsters front and put herself in position right at what she guessed was the things knee joint.

With a look of grim determination in her eyes Ranma buried both staves into the creatures flesh before letting loose a cry of, "**Saidaikyū Kijin Raishū Dan**…"

Wave after wave of compressed vacuum blade slammed down at point blank range right on top of the already weakened joint. Not finished with her attack the pigtailed martial artist then used the two keys as hand holds to keep herself steady as she prepared to twist herself around in a motion that would hopefully sever the already weakened leg in half.

Just as she finished the motion and was about to leap to relative safety Ranma's eyes went wide because within the edge of her peripheral vision she caught sight of a young girl inside one of the buildings going down a stairwell with the protective layers of glass already blown out from the battle. Realizing that the giant robot was off balance and on a collision course with the building that girl was in Ranma leapt into action intent on getting to the little girl before it was too late.

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"SHINJI THE ANGEL IS DOWN… MOVE IN AND FINISH IT OFF!" Misato Katsuragi chief of NERV's tactical operations yelled after only a moment's pause at the shock of seeing an Angel brought down with normal human sized mêlée weapons.

He had been distracted, after falling on his face in an attempt to make a second step with the Eva Shinji had spied a red-haired girl fighting the angel. He just couldn't believe that there was anyone out there brave enough to be out on the street at the same time as the angel, hell he was inside a giant robot and he didn't even want to be out there. Right before the angel had started to fall just as he was starting to get his balance again he had seen the girl launch herself towards him and he flinched. Causing him to further lose his balance and crash into another building, the same one in which the mysterious girl had just propelled herself into. A look of pure horror filled his face as he realized just what he had done.

'NOOO… NOOOOO…. I KILLED HER…."

For a moment the entirety of the command center was quiet as realization hit them as to what the young lad was talking about.

"Get up and dispose of the Angel before it has a chance to finish regenerating." Gendo ordered from his position overlooking central dogma.

Shocked her back into action by the Commanders cold words Misato added, "Shinji, you need to get moving."

"I killed her Misato… I killed her…"

"Yes you did, and unless you want everyone else to die you will climb out of that rubble and finish the Angel off."

Misato resisted the urge to berate the commander mostly out of fear of his reprisal and instead focused on getting her pilot back into the fight with, "Shinji you need to get moving, don't let the girls sacrifice be in vain, use the distraction she provided to take the Angel out before anyone else can get hurt.."

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/Boy where are you/ Genma signed franticly as he began to dig through the rubble of the partially collapsed building.

/Dammit Ranma stop playing around./

Flip

/This is no time to take a nap./

Flip

/Can you hear me/

Flip

/If you can bang on something and I will dig you out./

Clang clang

Moving in the general direction of the noise Genma paused and looked up at his sign.

"You know pops…" Ranma called out hoarsely as she tried to stifle a hacking cough, "People generally can't hear written words.

/Son this is no time for joking around./

"Yeah yeah, I got a fight to get back into…" Pausing as she slowly began to stand up revealing the form of a small 8 yr old girl curled up beneath her the teen added, "But before I do, You think you can carry escort this pretty young girl out of here?"

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Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga had been monitoring the feeds closely looking for any sign of movement from the red-haired girl that had so far nearly managed to single-handedly incapacitate the Angel. Just as he was shifting the feed to a different angle to scan another area of the rubble he caught sight of movement on the roof. Zooming in on the figure he exclaimed. "Captain we have movement on one of the partially collapsed roofs, it's the red-haired girl… she's alive and looking like she is getting ready for another attack."

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Sachiel knew that it was about to be defeated, the tiny Lilum had proved to be a formable foe, despite that he had still felt confident. Then though he had sensed something else and began to worry, the Lilum had thus far proved to be an elusive enemy but the new combatant was much larger and more likely to be able to prevent him from reaching his goal. So he immediately discarded the small Lilum as the primary threat and moved on to a new target in the hopes of neutralizing it in time to crush the tiny Lilum.

However the new target had not proved to be much of challenge and suddenly Sachiel began to suspect that the tiny Lilum was the true threat as his own momentary distraction gave the Lilum enough time to seriously damage him.

There had been a brief respite afterwards but now he could feel the small Lilum coming again and he knew that this was going to be the end. Wanting to clear the way for his brothers the third being of a race called angels went with a final solution and opted to self-destruct.

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"Right, it's time I finish this. I'm going to send a Hyru Shoten Toppa so far up you your grandkids in whatever hell that spawned you are gonna feel it." Ranma muttered to herself as she moved onto the buildings ledge. Reaching the point of no return in her commitment to jump the pigtailed teens eyes widened in shock as the Godzilla reject suddenly shifted forms into a large ball that then wrapped itself around the giant robots upper body. Unable to do anything but comically wave her hands about in a off balance attempt to recover her lost footing Ranma started to shout, "Ohh…."

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The entire bridge crew watched in shock as the unknown girl comically flapped her arms moments before the Angel self-destructed sending the girl flinging across the sky.

Looking down at the view screen from his position in his balcony Gendo ordered. "Begin salvage operations." Then as an afterthought he added. "That includes finding the body of that girl.

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"Elder over here."

"How is she?"

"It's faint but Ranma-sama has a pulse… I'm worried elder these injuries are quite severe, Ranma is in dire need of medical treatment."

"Help will be arriving shortly, she must hold out on her own until then."

"Elder cologne I must protest, Ranma-sama is in critical condition and might not last."

Signing Cologne replied, "Very well, I will attempt to keep her stable enough until help is closer, contact Genma and tell him we have the Kinjakan and for him to find the other."

"Elder?"

"Child it's one growl for yes he has it two for no he doesn't, any other answer tell him we will handle it later and that Ranma will remain stable." Cologne snapped testily while leaning forward to take in the full extent of her former son in laws injuries, noting that they were just as severe as her temporary partner had claimed she muttered, "I'm sorry I can't do much more for you Ranma but a lot of things depend on you being found as you are. We have our orders to keep our involvement hidden for now, which is why I apologize for what I am about to do. No doubt you will be pissed about it but it has to be done. At least you're still going to be you… well for the most part…"

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Several minutes later

"Elder, NERV security vehicles have just pulled into view, we will be surrounded within minutes."

"Good, come let us get out of here before we blow our cover."

"Yes elder. Shall I send out the signal for the final phase."

"Not necessary, I'm already here." Came a gruff reply. "I will deliver the Kinjakan after I complete the final phase."

"Cologne shook her head in acknowledgement as she was scooped up by Konatsu, "Just make sure that you are convincing."

Once the others had left the masculine figure moved the Kinjakan near Ranma's prone body and got to work. Muttering a gruff but fond, "Jackass… " the person began staging the body in preparation for the arrival of their guests.

The orders had been clear, the body needed to be staged a certain way for whatever Cologne had done to Ranma to have its full effect. She wasn't sure what effect it was supposed to have other than to hide the fact that the others had been at the scene.

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Misato panted as she ran up the steps following closely behind the security detail tasked with recovering the body of the red haired girl that had taken on the angel. Originally she had planned to go out to supervise Shinji's extraction but after hearing from the recovery team that he was alive just unconscious she had settled for going with NERV security to bring in the girl. And despite the odds on finding her alive she was holding out hope.

She had been suspicious at first about the girl actually being human then though fact that Ritsuko had confirmed it combined with the magi agreeing with the General's assessment of the girls humanity had gone a long way in easing whatever fears she had had that there girl was an angel in disguise.

Noting that the lead of the detail had come to a stop at a the landing of the floor that they had traced the girls trajectory to Misato shot a glance over her shoulder to the EMT's they had brought along. "Keep the guns down." She barked, "We don't want to spook her, we're here to help."

Moving herself foreword she continued, "I'll go in first by myself, the medics will follow once I give the all clear." Motioning to the security team she added, "You guys stay out here and secure the area."

Cautiously she moved forward and slowly swung open the door while calling out, "This is Captain Misato Katsuargi of NERV and I am here to render any medical assistance you might require."

Not hearing a reply the woman slowly stepped out of the stairwell to look around. The entire floor was abandoned at first glance a outer rim of vacant offices encompassing an inner maze of cubicles making it difficult to find their target. Realizing that time was of the essence she glanced back to the security detail and ordered, "Fan out, find the girl but don't approach her."

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Ukyo sighed in relief as she heard the woman's voice calling out. She had finished with staging the scene and now was just staying there in silent support for her former fiancée until help would arrive. _"I wish they would hurry up…" _She fretted to herself while idly adjusting the scraps of clothing covering the redhead beneath her, "_Ranchan just hang on a little longer…" _

Hearing footsteps heading in her direction Ukyo stood up and loudly brushed up against a cubical wall.

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Hearing the sound of movement Misato immediately looked up and noticed a figure standing in one of the darkened cubical. Unsure of the person's identity she called out, "OVER HERE…" Motioning towards the person standing she added, "We're just here to help…"

Ukyo slowly turned to the voice before reaching down to grab the Kinjakan and exploding into movement away from the prone body of what had been her best friend from nearly a lifetime ago.

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Misato went to give chase only to pause once the figure's silhouette was illuminated by the moonlight. Whomever the person was wasn't the girl they were looking for but did have one of the girls weapons. That much she could tell in the dim lighting as the blade shone in the moonlight. Hearing the sound of the security detail rushing in her direction she called out, "After him, he has one of the weapons. I'll find the girl."

Unsure and a little uneasy about what she would find the purple haired woman hurried back to the spot that she had first spotted the figure only to momentarily freeze in place as she spotted the battered form of the girl laying still on the floor surrounded by debris that seemed to have been neatly cleared away from the body. Swallowing hard Misato cautiously approached the body before catching sight of the slight rise and fall of the girls unbound chest.

"MEDIC… OVER HERE, She's breathing…" Kneeling down to grasp a hold of the girls hand she added softly, "Don't worry, help is on the way…"


	2. Chapter 2

Okay here is chapter 2 of The Last Grandmaster a Ranma ½ Evangelion crossover fan fiction. Thanks to both James Axelrad and Nysk for their assistance with this fic.

Also I would like to thank those reviewers out there.

And for those waiting on updates on my other fics, Making a Difference will probably be updated after Christmas because the thumb drive with the reedited copies are 304.6 miles from my apartment at the moment. However other updates are coming soon I now just need to respruce up some of the chapters.

Sorry about no updates yesterday but I apparently got sidetracked with baking cookies at my sisters.

Anyway I think today you guys will get this and one other fic, not sure which one though.

I'm such a bastard…

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Nerv Infirmery

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Ranma slowly opened her eye's only to squeeze them shut in pain at the offensive bright lights beaming right into her skull. Had she not been suffering from a excruciating headache she might have muttered something rather unpleasant. As it was she was having problems just laying there with her whole body throbbing with pain.

After several agonizing moments where her body struggled to work through enough of the pain to allow her some sensory input the redhead began to once again slowly open her eyes the difference this time though was she could actually somewhat focus on her surroundings, unfortunately she realized that even with her eyes open she was limited to only being able to see within the sphere of her peripheral vision as her head seemed to be strapped in place along with one of her arms and both her legs. Realizing that she was in traction the locked girl almost let loose a amused sigh only to cut herself short as the action proved to be rather painful.

After several minutes though she was starting to get bored with just staring straight ahead, not to mention that the florescent light was starting to add to her already throbbing headache. Closing her eyes with a grimace the redhead just tried to put the light out of her eye by trying to reach out with her other senses in a attempt to keep herself occupied. After a few minutes she sighed audibly while holding back a grimace and called out, "Hey you on the other side of the room? I don't suppose you can turn that light off for me?"

After waiting a few minutes in silence Ranma held back another sigh and answered herself, "I suppose not… Damm that light is annoying. You'd think that if there was someone sleeping in the room they'd at least turn off the lights."

Still not hearing any sort of reply the bedridden redhead offered, "Don't suppose you're even awake… No, probably not… Wonder where I am, sort of new around here, just got here… Yesterday? Not sure really…"

Not hearing a response Ranma quieted down and sat their silently for a few minutes, slightly unnerved with the near complete silence until she got bored enough to start talking again, "So giant robots huh… Sort of neat… I suppose, seemed to have a bit of an issue staying on its feet though… Ohh that reminds me… Stupid robot getting in my way, I had that thing right where I wanted it I was gonna… you know here I am just talking away and it just occurred to me that I haven't introduced myself, Yoiko Soatome…" _"That's not my name… My names Ranma… Okay let's try this again." _"Yoiko Soatome at your service…"

Instantly Ranma knew that there was something wrong and would had thought that the inability to speak her own name out loud would have spooked her or at the least gotten some sort of physical reaction from her, but somehow after the initial realization that she was speaking the wrong name it just didn't seem to matter, like that was just her name. After running the past few minutes back through her head though she realized something else, she was being way too talkative, she wasn't a mute on a normal day but the way she was talking was sort of reminding her of some of those girls back in school who would just keep talking about random stuff.

"Rei Ayanami."

Ranma blinked at the soft spoken reply before her eyes lit up, apparently whomever she was sharing the room with was a bit quiet but at least now she had somebody to talk to. "Oh hey you are awake, nice to meet ya. Don't suppose you can tell me where I am?"

"You are inside NERV in their infirmary."

"Uhm thanks I guess… Err Rei, NERV?"

"That is classified information, Saotome-San. "

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earlier

Ritsuko had been working in her office going over all of the lab work she had done on their mystery girl staring at it in disbelief, the girl was human, technically superhuman but completely human none the less. Some how the girl had managed to unlock her own AT field and bring it into the visible spectrum while manipulating it into a energy blast.

Theoretically she supposed that it was possible, there was only a small less than two percent variance between the DNA of an Angel and that of a human but to think that there was a normal human running around capable of performing such feats had her mentally cycling through some of the possibilities. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of potential guinea pigs the doctor once again returned back to her work as despite the girls obvious humanity there was a slight variance in her molecular make up that while it was breaking down on it's own the fact that it was there needed an explanation. At first glance she had thought it to be possible Angel contamination and it still could be that, the problem was is that they just didn't know enough about angels for her to get a definite answer.

Seeing a blinking light on her display the dyed blond blinked in shock, it seemed that the girl was already awake, "I suppose I should go check in on her, I do have my orders, though this is going to make running tests on her more difficult. Wasn't really counting on her to wake for a few more days.

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"What do you make of this old man?" Gendo motioned to several reports sitting on his desk

"I'm not sure. Is she even human?"

"Dr. Akagi reports that she is in fact fully human."

"And she is certain of this?"

"She assures me that she is."

Letting out an amused snort at the situation at hand Kozo Fuyutsuki replied, "To think all this time… I wonder how many more like her there are hiding out there."

"I do not know, nor do I care to speculate on the matter, what is troubling are her abilities and the two weapons that she had and the fact that they have vanished… There was something odd about those weapons and if there are more of those out there within reach it could prove to be troublesome."

"Do you think that they could be Angelic in nature?" Kozo asked.

"I'm not sure. If they aren't then we might have a more serious threat to our plans that just the angels and SEELE." turning his back to his old professor Gendo pushed a button on the wall that in turn revealed the inside of a hospital room that was currently occupied by both the unknown girl and Rei Ayanami.

"She's awake? Already? I thought Akagi mentioned that she wouldn't be conscious for several more days."

"It seems that she has regenerative capabilities similar to that of an angel." turning the screen off Gendo turned back to his old mentor and added, "Due to the less than stellar performance of the third child the UN as well as the Japanese government are concerned about our ability to fight the angels. They requested that I turn this girl over to the JSSDF once she has recovered enough from her injuries for debriefing and possible recruitment."

"Are you going to hand her over?"

"With the effectiveness of the Evangelions in question releasing this girl to a agency outside NERV could prove to be inconvenient. SEELE has already consulted with me on the matter and have ordered me to name her the fourth child," Gendo explained.

"Do we even know if she can sync with an eva? She just woke up and Akagi is still running tests on her."

"Whether or not she can sync with an EVA is not going to be an issue."

"I see, so this is just a stalling tactic to keep the girl here."

"Yes and if in the meantime she can prove to be useful to us then that is just an added benefit."

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2 days later

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Ranma tried to shuffle herself into a more comfortable position in the bed as she once again went over the events that had brought her into the hospital. The fight had been fairly strait-forward, though in looking back at it she was surprised at the readiness that she had employed her fathers forbidden techniques or even the fact that she had been able to pull them off so readily. Sure the old panda had told her anything and everything goes but she hadn't even hesitated in deploying them whereas when she fought Saffron the thought to use them had not even crossed her mind. _"Then again the fight with Saffron was different… At least I think it was different… Saffron wasn't rampaging mindlessly through a city surviving nukes… Even if I had used them he would have just regenerated any damage a vacuum blade did to him." '_

Not really satisfied with her own thoughts Ranma shifted mental gears over to what Mrs Ninomiya had told her during the fight about needing to be able to duplicate the teachers ki draining techniques. While she had a good idea of how the techniques were done Ranma didn't like the consequences of using them as she really didn't want to stay in the body of a young woman for the rest of her life. "_Then again Hinako sensei's return shots were a lot more powerful than my Moko Takabisha's… Still unless I can figure out how to use those techniques without having to have my pressure points manipulated so I can absorb the energy… I guess I could always try to absorb the ki into some sort of object like a fire cracker or something… Hmm… That could work something sort of like one of the old letch's blasts." _

"Saotome san?"

"It's Yoiko, Rie." Ranma replied with a inwardly annoyed grimace at the fact she still couldn't give out her real name and was instead stuck with the name she had used to fool Ryoga into thinking that she was his sister.

"I was wondering if you would like a book to read?"

Ranma's eyes widened in slight shock it had been two days since she had woken up and not once had the girl initiated a conversation let alone offer her something. "Sure, I guess…" not hearing anything else forthcoming Ranma lightheartedly added, "You know for a while there I almost thought that you didn't like me."

Rei blinked unsure as how to answer that, she received an order from the commander that she was to get close to her roommate and report any suspicious activities, however her orders also stated that she was not to disclose her orders either so with that in mind she offered, "I do not dislike you."

Turning her head away from her roommate with a sigh the pigtailed girl muttered to herself, _"Well at least I don't have to worry about her love for me." _Hearing the door open and noticing a familiar blonde doctor approaching her Ranma greeted, "Hiya doc."

"Yoiko, how are you doing this afternoon?"

"Okay doc, bored, a little hungry and ready to get out of here." Ranma replied with a shrug.

"Well, tell you what…" Ritsuko started, "Why don't I give a call down to the cafeteria and have them bring you up another lunch and then when I get back perhaps we can talk for a little while to help alleviate some of that boredom of yours."

"That's not really necessary doc, I know your pretty busy besides Rei over there already offered to loan me one of her books." Ranma said as she tried to avoid having to have another chat with the woman.

"Nonsense, a good doctor always makes time for her patients. It's no trouble just let me give a call down to the cafeteria and I'll be right back."

Ranma sighed, it's not that she didn't like the doctor or anything like that its just that every time she talked to the woman she would wind up being disturbed by her own answers to the doctors questions which were starting to drive her a little crazy.

121

Flashback

"I'm Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, and if you don't mind I have a few questions to ask you."

Offering a roguish grin Ranma shrugged and replied, "Sure go ahead doc."

"What is your name?"

"Yoiko Saotome." Ranma stated quietly unnerved by the fact that she still seemed unable to tell anyone her real name.

"Well Yoiko do you know where you are?"

"The girl on the other side of the room told me NERV's infirmary."

"Well yes but I'm looking for a broader answer."

"Ah… Okay, err somewhere in Japan?"

Ritsuko sighed and replied, "Okay fair enough, Nerv is located with in Tokyo3." sliding a chair next to the redheads bed the blond woman sat down, crossed her legs and continued, "I suppose asking where you are when you don't know where you are can be a bit confusing, sorry about that I am just trying to make sure that you are not suffering from any mental trauma. Now do you remember what happened right before you got here?"

"Oh, you mean that giant b movie reject thing, I think it blew itself up, though I suppose it just got really embarrassed, I mean aside from the little explosions it tossed around it really wasn't that much of a challenge, heck I've seen bricks that hit harder."

"Okay…" The blond woman stated with a small bit of amusement that carried through to her voice at the way the redheaded girl had so casually spoke about fighting the angel. "Now this next question might be a little difficult to answer but was there anything else you remembered between the time Angel self destructed and where you woke up here?"

"Angel?" Ranma asked, "You mean those little guys with the diapers and arrows? Don't remember fighting any of those guys… Well a there were those one guys from awhile back but I think that was some sort of cosplay martial arts thing…"

"Uhm no Yoiko." Ritsuko paused while making a note to ask about cosplay martial arts later, "The creature you fought is called an angel."

"Oh," Ranma replied, "Then, no I guess, one minute I was about to jump down and finish the thing off, the next thing I know I'm waking up here." Pausing briefly as a thought occurred to her the redhead added, "Say Doc? What happened to the two staffs I was using?"

"Okay…" Ritsuko said holding back a frown as she made another note that the teen apparently had no memory of what happened before her rescue. "I'm not sure, the team we sent to retrieve you reported that one of the staffs was with your body but was taken by a third party before our team could secure the area. We are attempting to locate the weapon along with the other one but so far our attempts at locating them have been unsuccessful."

"Oh.." Ranma muttered to herself before asking, "Don't suppose you got a description of whomever took it?"

Shaking her head Ritsuko replied, "Not really, we have a sketch but it was dark so our agents didn't really get a lot of details. Do you have any idea on whom might have taken them?"

"No not really…" Ranma answered, "I just got into town and don't know anyone."

Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere with that line of questioning the doctor moved on to ask, "Now you mentioned martial arts before can you tell me about it?"

"_Pop's or someone had to have taken it, those two staffs are too valuable to be lost like that. Well if they got a sketch then pops doesn't have it because with what I gathered from him and Akane they are trying to hide from view and if there's one thing pop's is good at it's hiding from view. Then again she's not really telling me much so perhaps pops did take it and she just doesn't want to tell me that a panda took the weapons." _Ranma thought to herself before snapping her attention back to her visitor and asking, "You mean in general?"

"No, I was thinking more along the line of who trained you, are there others out there like you and what brought you to Tokyo 3."

With a sigh Ranma replied, "My parents… Ranma and Ranko Soatome…" "_There it is again… What is wrong with me… Pops trained me I meant to just say pops… why would I tell anyone I trained myself, well I guess it's partially true but still pops mostly trained me and I sure as hell ain't my own mother…" _Clearing her throat she continued sadly, "Not that I know of… "_No.. Why am I starting to feel like I am about to cry…" she thought to herself before sniffling, _"I didn't know where else to go… My parents… they're gone…"

"Ah… It's okay Yoiko… we can continue this after you've had more of a chance to heal…" Ritsuko tried to comfort the teen before she awkwardly left the room, only to stop once she was outside the door and frown because while she hadn't been able to get all the questions in she had heard enough for the moment and felt guilty about overly stressing the girl. The only real consolidation to her conscience though was that with all the drugs running through the girls system there had been no way that she would have been able to lie.

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End flashback

"I'm back Yoiko, hope you don't mind Ramen, it's all the cafeteria had left over from lunch today."

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With Misato

Misato Katsuragi stood purposely outside the door to the commanders office as she tried to mentally review the requests she was about to make. While she recognized the importance of having a capable pilot at the helm of an eva, the constant drills and simulations were really taking their toll on Shinji and if things kept on with their current pace Shinji might very well burn out. And having a burnt out pilot with the only other currently still too injured from a failed sync test is something that could prove to be disastrous to Nerv, the city and the world. Of course she realized that the young girl whom had been combating the last angel could possibly defeat the next one as well, the problem with that though is that the young girl was only in marginally better condition than that of pilot Ayanami.

So after much consideration the night before where her beer supply dropped dangerously low the Nerv Captain had decided to approach the commander and make her case. Grimacing at what could possibly be the end of her career the purple haired woman reached out with her fist and knocked timidly on the door.

"Enter."

Flinching at how even the commander could turn a simple word and twist it into something intimidating the Captain opened the door and took a few hasty steps inside before coming to a abrupt stop and slipping into attention while sounding off, "Captain Misato Katsuragi requesting permission to speak sir."

"Speak."

"Commander I would like to speak about the third child…" Misato stated unnerved as the man behind the desk stared at her impassively from behind his steepled hands. "While I understand the necessity of having our pilots trained and able to operate the equipment, Shinji has been training constantly for 14 hours a day since the last battle and has shown marked improvement in his ability to pilot. I believe… think… request that he be allowed to have the training schedule adjusted to allow him with at least some interaction with children his own age or even attending school as per the mandate pertaining to all child pilots within Nerv." _"There I said it… I can't believe it… why hasn't he said anything… Misato now you've done it… I'm going to get fired, this was crazy… Stupid stupid stupid stupid…"_

"Very well."

Slouching her shoulders in defeat the purple haired women let out a defeated, "Yes sir…" then though the commanders words actually registered to her and she straightened herself out and snapped back a more confident, "I mean Yes Sir." Not wanting to risk her legs collapsing out from under her Misato started to turn around only to stop as the commander started speaking again.

"Captain, take in mind, Nerv will not tolerate further failings with our pilots."

"Yes sir, I know sir…"

Not even pausing to acknowledge the captains reply Gendo continued, "As the Chief tactical officer of this facility preventing situations like that fall under your responsibility. As well as the health and welfare of our pilots. So I will leave his training up to you as long as he can effectively pilot an Eva it is no consequence. I am also under the understanding that recently you spoke to the third child about his current living arrangements?"

"Yes sir…" Misato replied wondering where the commander had heard that as she had just broached the possibility with Shinji earlier during a break for lunch.

"I will allow that as well under the condition that you accept personal responsibility for all pilots under your charge."

"Sir?"

Breaking his fingers apart Gendo slowly slid two folders across his desk towards the captain and continued, "This will include the care and well being of the first and fourth children. You are dismissed."

After stepping forward to retrieve the two folders Misato briefly flipped them open to get a glimpse at her other two charges. She had known about Ayanami but she hadn't known anything about the fourth child arriving at Nerv. But upon seeing whom the fourth child was she had to visibly refrain herself from spinning around and leaving the room in a mad dash to the infirmary. However as the purple haired woman maintained her calm another thought occurred to her and that one had the Captain hesitantly state, "Sir… I'm not sure my current residence is large enough…"

"Arrangements will be taken care . Now dismissed Captain."

"Yes sir."

121

"_I can't believe that I really did that…" _Misato muttered to herself as she forced herself to not run down the hall towards the infirmary. She had stayed by the girls bedside for the first day and a half until she had to answer a summons by sub commander Fuyutsuki. And while it had not been an official reprimand for Shinji's failings in the Eva, the meeting had resulted with a ban on her from entering the infirmary until further notice.

Grinning as she once again looked down to the folder she said to herself, "_It seems that I just got my further notice…" _

121

Having reached her destination Misato stopped short of just barging in and announcing herself as she was starting to have doubts on what she was dealing with, was she going to be meeting a powerful martial artist whom had battled an Angel to a near standstill without an Eva or was she going to be dealing with an potentially emotionally damaged young girl whom was recovering from a traumatic experience. _"Well, it's not like we really know what happened in that office building. The body was staged, that much we know, though for what purpose we can't tell. We might have interrupted before things could progress further. I just wish Ritsuko would tell me what she found…"_

Not for the first time in the past week she cursed her supposedly best friend for her tight-lipped need to know policy. So after straightening out her uniform and pasting on a nervous smile she hesitantly knocked on the door.

121

"Uhm… Come in…" Ranma hesitantly called out while putting the book Rei had loaned out to her off to the side.

Misato blinked while simultaneously suppressing a sigh of relief before opening the door. The voice that had greeted her didn't really sound like a emotionally damaged young girl. _"Or she's suppressing things, then again Ritsuko did say that the girl might have been unconscious after the explosion and just simply had no memories of anything that might have happened. Heck I don't even understand how she even survived that blast." _ And while she thought that ethically the girl had a right to know Misato wasn't really sure about what she could tell her as there just wasn't enough evidence backing any other theory than that of a random crook stealing a weapon.

Regardless of which scenario it was the purple haired woman resolved to show the girl that people were grateful for what she had done. So with that last thought in her head the woman confidently swung open the door and walked over to the girls bedside before announcing herself with, " I'm glad to finally see you awake."

"Yoiko Saotome… Nice to meet you…" Ranma replied awkwardly, "I'm sorry have we met before?"

"Sorry bout that, Captain Misato Katsuragi, Nerv chief of tactical operations. I was the on the team sent to recover you after the Angel fight. You were pretty banged up and it was very touch and go there at first. But you seem to be recovering nicely." Leaning in to hug the girl Misato continued, "I was really worried about you, you are doing better now? Right? They taking good care of you in here? Eating enough? Are they making sure you get all your vitamins? No bad dreams or anything?"

"Uhm… No… I'm doing okay I guess…" Ranma replied nervous from the close proximity to the other woman and her generous assets.

Sighing as she disengaged herself from the teen Misato replied, "That's great news… You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that, Did I mention that I've been really worried about you." Pulling over a nearby chair so she could sit down Misato clasped her hand over the teens and continued cheerfully, "But no worries now, soon you'll be able to leave the infirmary, sooner if I can get Ritsuko to sign off on it. She does owe me, especially after the week I've had. Then I can bring you home with me so you can finish your recovery somewhere a bit more comfortable."

Not for the first time since waking up Ranma was confused by the events playing out around her. While having odd but attractive women inviting her back to their place was nothing new to the current girl, the fact that her mental eminent danger alert was not sending red flags and telling her to brace for impact unnerved and confused her.

Mistaking the confusion for something else Misato explained, "Well since you have been identified as the fourth child and the welfare and health of all pilots are my responsibility…"

"But Katsuragi-san i don't have any brothers or sisters." Ranma interrupted even more confused about what the woman was talking about as one she didn't have any siblings that she knew of, of course with how long she had been in that coma that could have changed but last time she checked she wasn't a pilot either.

"Huh…" Misato blinked, "Okay first off, it's Misato or Misa-chan if you want, Katsuragi-san is too stuffy for us, I'm sure we are going to be good friends and good friends don't run around being all formal and stuff. As for the fourth bit, it's not fourth child as in 3 other siblings but 4'th child as in… Well it's just a number that we use to designate those whom can fight the angels. I would had thought that they would have explained this to you when you agreed to join Nerv."

"Join Nerv?" Ranma parroted back

"Ohh… Don't tell me…" Misato muttered to herself while she palmed her face in embarrassment before flipping open Yoiko's folder for a more in depth look at the contents.

"Don't tell you what… Katsu… " Ranma started to ask before seeing the woman frown slightly as if she was reminding her to use. "Misato-chan…"

"See that wasn't so bad now was it." Misato beamed happily before coming across the piece of paper she had been looking for and groaning, "Recruitment pending… I'm sorry I was under the impression that they had already spoken to you about possibly joining us to fight the angels."

"Uhm no one mentioned anything like that to me." Ranma replied warily, suddenly unsure of why everyone had been so friendly to her.

Not wanting to lie to the girl Misato started with a nervous chuckle and explained, "I need to be honest with you Yoiko, Nerv was created for the specific purpose to combat the angels as at the time we were unaware that there were people out there like you that could help us defend humanity from them. To put it simply your fight with the angel made a lot of waves, some good some bad. But most importantly it gives me hope that with people like you working with us to defend humanity then we might just win this war. I don't want to beg you but I will, relying on just one option that depends on so many things going right is no way to fight, we really need your help… So what do you say?"

She felt torn, on one hand she really did want to help them as it was part of a martial artists duty but on the other she had a lot of unanswered questions floating around her mind and she really needed to figure out what was happening to her before she could make any sort of commitment. So despite how much of a heel it made her feel like the redhead politely declined with, "Misato-chan… I'd like to help you guy's fight the Angels… I really would… But I've seem to have misplaced my clothes…"

At first she had thought that Yoiko was going to decline her offer but after hearing the last bit Misato grinned back at the girl and replied, "Well that's no problem at all, we'll just have to go shopping then."

"_Oh god…" Ranma thought, "I've died and gone to hell… What's wrong with me? Why'd I even suggest that?" _

Seeing the distressed look on the girls face Misato offered with a wink, "Don't worry about the money honey, Nerv will be picking up the tab on this one. So we'll just have to make sure that we get you every thing you need, I know a few stores where we can pull an all nighter if necessary."

"That's not really necessary." Ranma replied, pleased at the fact that she seemed to be able say no to that at the least, "But all I really need is a few things, I'm a growing girl, no sense in buying a lot of stuff that I might not wear…" Clamping a hand over her mouth upon the realization that the last part was no where even close to her intended statement of, I really don't need a lot of stuff because I will be taking off soon, Ranma realized that she might very well be stuck sticking around as her mouth just did not want to inform them otherwise.

Laughing lightly at the teens antics the purple haired woman stood up and said, "Well it might not be necessary, but Nerv is footing the bill so you might as well take advantage of it…" leaning in for another hug Misato then added, "As fun as this is though I need to get going to find Shinji and Rei and tell them the good news, then after that I can go see Ritsuko and see about springing you out of here asap."

"Rei Ayanami? Ranma asked nervously as she once again found herself being hugged by the attractive woman.

Blinking as she disengaged herself from the smaller girl Misato curiously replied, "Yes, have you met her?"

Jerking her thumb over to the dividing curtain next to her Ranma replied, "She's over there."

Palming her face at the realization that she had forgotten about Rei's injuries and now faced with the knowledge that she probably could have snuck in to visit Yoiko before if she had known that she was currently sharing a room with the other girl Misato offered, "Well I guess that will be saving me a little time in tracking her down a bit. And on the plus side you and her can continue to get to know each other before we all move in together."

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3 days later

"Now Shinji, since both Yoiko and Rei are still recovering from their injuries I expect you help them out as needed." Misato stated as she slid out of the car to pop the trunk.

Sighing because he knew what was coming next Shinji exited the car and after waiting for both girls to get out before politely closing it and heading for the trunk where he was once again to assume the role of pack mule.

Smiling at the teen for being such a trooper Misato stated, "The sooner we get this stuff upstairs the sooner we can start the party."

"Misato…chan… That's too much, you don't need to go through all that trouble."

"Nonsense Yoiko, we're all roommates now and there's no better way to get started out on the right foot than with a little celebration. Besides it's just going to be the four of us."

"Now come on girl's Shinji is a real gentleman and will take care of unloading the car."

"Uhm okay, just let me grab my fish… Ranma stated as she watched the Misato move towards the elevator with Rei following after her. Turning back to the boy whom was currently in the process of loading himself up Ranma offered an apologetic smile followed by, "Here let me give you a hand with some of that."

"Gomen…" Shinji muttered with a blush as he tried to look away from his new roommate. He still felt terrible about what had happened to her and his role in it. That combined with the fact that she was a very attractive girl whom was being nice to him only made him feel more uncomfortable.

"Not very talkative are you?" Ranma asked as she began to help the poor kid, "You're probably going to get along with Rei real well then, she doesn't say much either." Having finished clearing out the trunk Ranma added. "Well got any idea on which apartment is ours?"

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Later that night

Ranma sighed as she closed the door to her room, the party as Misato had put it was dieing down, though to be fair it had never really gotten started as both Rei and Shinji seemed to be very quiet people. Misato on the other hand had started the party by slamming a beer and kept putting them away at a pace that would have shamed her own father and Mr Tendo combined.

However despite Misato's apparently lush status Ranma did like the older woman as she seemed so cheerful and happy and had actually made a real effort to draw both Rei and Shinji out of their shells some. Unfortunately both of the other teens seemed reluctant to open up. With Shinji it seemed that he was just embarrassed and nervous all of the time while Rei seemed to just be there aware of everything going on but not really participating.

"_Well I'd love to stick around and help them out some but with the way my mouth has been working against me, I don't know if that would be a good idea." _Shuddering at the stray thought of her mouth confessing undying love towards Shinji while at the same time sparking a feud with Rei over stealing her Shinji-kun when all she had actually meant to say was pass the wasabi Ranma turned her attention to the mirror over her dresser and frowned. At first she hadn't even realized it, the fight with the angel, the stay in the hospital, there had been signs but she had just put them out of her mind thinking it was a side effect to what ever caused her coma. But looking in the mirror she could not deny the fact that somehow she had become younger. A handful of years or so at the most, leaving her looking like she had around the time when she was first cursed or possibly younger.

Not wanting to think anymore about questions she didn't have the answers too the redhead then turned her attention to the small fishbowl containing two Siamese fighting fish. She had convinced Misato to stop at the pet store on a whim but knew if she was going to try to emulate Hinako-sensei's technique she needed a test subject and she was very reluctant to try it out on another human until she had enough of it worked out to ensure she could use it right.

Moving across the room so that she was several feet away from the bowl Ranma slipped a small coin into her fingers and after glancing over to the bowl through the coin began to concentrate on what she was trying to do.

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/BOOOOMMM/

Misato jerked her head up with a start and sprung into action, her heart fluttering with worry over the possibility of something bad happening to one of her charges. Spotting a small amount of smoke billowing out from underneath a door she pushed it open and nearly fell over in shock at the sight of a very singed looking Yoiko standing there with puffs of smoke wafting off of herself. Seeing that the redhead was in shock and didn't seem to be moving the older woman called out, "Rei could you come out here please?"

"I am here." Rei announced as she stepped into view wearing nothing but a towel, which of course would have been fine except said towel was just acting as a drape for the blue haired girls arm. Looking frantically around for the sole male in their household Misato tried to warn the girl with a whispered, "Rei…"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH….. Misato… Misato… Misato… There's a…"

Palming her face as the bathroom door behind her slammed open to reveal a very panicking and naked Shinji Misato tried to reign some sort of control on the situation only for Yoiko's clothes to choose that exact moment to fall apart and onto to the ground.

Shinji stopped in his tracks upon noticing that his guardian was just standing there in front of him, worried that there might be something wrong he went to move around her only to stop dead in his tracks as the slight shift in perspective allowed him to see what she was staring at. Instantly he tried to politely avert his eyes only for them to stumble across the nude form of his other roommate.

Upon hearing the loud thud behind her Misato shook her head and muttered to herself, "I'm going to need more beer. I can't believe this… I'm living with a bunch of nudists…"

1

2

3

Omake

Omake

Omake

1

2

3

Shinji stopped in his tracks upon noticing that his guardian was just standing there in front of him, worried that there might be something wrong he went to move around her only to stop dead in his tracks as the slight shift in perspective allowed him to see what she was staring at. Instantly he tried to politely avert his eyes only for them to stumble across the nude for of his other roommate.

Upon hearing the loud thud behind her Misato shook her head and muttered to herself, "I think I'm going to need more beer. I can't believe this I'm living with a bunch of nudists…" Looking around herself at all the naked flesh on display the purple haired vixen was filled with another thought, one that showed to her just how brilliant these kids thought they were. _"Well two can play that game." _

Shrugging out of her shorts that were soon followed by her panties tank top and bra Misato announced, _"There_'s no way I'm about to let myself get stuck with everyones laundry just because I happen to wear the most clothes. You guy's hear that… It's every man for themselves."

Having just snapped back to her senses in time to be confronted with a very nude Misato Ranma did the only thing she could think of.

/THUD/

Rei shrugged as she made her way into the bathroom, Misato's words made a lot of sense. After all she only had a few school uniforms and a box of dirty bandages for her own closet because of her own dislike of doing laundry.

.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry about the delay in releasing this chapter, I have a few more on hand to upload that will be coming as I get around to it.

Anyway Thanks to James Axelrad and Nysk for their help with this fic.

And hopefully I will be releasing other stuff shortly it's going to be a hectic next couple of weeks for me.

Disclaimer, I often forget to tack these on to my chapters so I don't own either series.

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The Last Grandmaster Chapter 3

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Ranma sighed as she walked along on top of the fence on her way to her first day of school with Shinji and Rei. She wanted to grumble and complain about it, about how it wasn't fair, she had been in college before her coma after all but despite herself she couldn't voice her complaints. _"This is really getting annoying. It seems like I can't even complain any more. The worse part is, is that every time I decide that I can't take it anymore and decide to leave to go look for Akane, Pops or someone,__ I allow myself to be distracted by something." _Shivering not from the cold but rather from the cool breeze wafting through her legs the pigtailed girl scowled and continued her mental rant, _"And another thing… I can't believe that I'm not fussing over wearing this s__tupid skirt, a school uniform is one thing but I don't see why I couldn't pick out a boy's one… No Misato had said to pick out some school uniforms and I went straight to the girls section without even realizing it."_

With her shoulders slumping in defeat the cursed girl continued to trudge along the top of the fence while muttering to herself, "_I suppose that I should be thankful that at least I know that I am doing this rather than just going along and being clueless about it. And well… I suppose that things could be worse, Rei's been to this school before and from what I managed to be able to voice out about my old school even if I was calling it my fathers school, it seems like this is a pretty normal place so at least I shouldn't have to worry about pineapple bombs and crazed kendoists."_

Pausing in mid stride to work out some stiffness in her shoulder with a grimace of discomfort the pigtailed girl held back a growl of irritation, it had been 3 weeks to the day since her fight with the Angel and she still wasn't at a hundred percent. If she had to take a rough estimate she would guess somewhere around 80-90 percent but just the fact that she wasn't totally healed yet unnerved her slightly as it gave her a really good idea of exactly how serious her injuries had been. Still though at least her training had managed to get back on track in the little over a week that she had been living at Misato's as there had been nothing else to do but train.

"_Well that's not exactly true, Rei was there during the day recovering along side me and once they were done at Nerv Misato and Shinji would come back. Misato seems really nice so far, bit of a drinker but she seems to mean well. Rei is really hard to get a good read on. Sometimes it seems like she is trying to be friendly other times it's like she's there but… There just seems to be something off about her, can't even really explain it to myself."_ Sparing the silent boy trudging slightly up ahead of them a glance Ranma mentally continued, _"Shinji is __a lot easier to read, quiet, shy, try's to appease everybody while maintaining his distance."_

Stopping mid stride once more, this time to adjust her back slightly Ranma added, "_If this was Nerima fifteen years ago I'm not even sure I would talk to either of them. Sure I had a few semi normal friends and I'd like to think I'm fairly easy going but these two are so completely different from anyone I've ever really hung out with."_

Rolling her eyes as she felt her quad muscle spasm slightly Ranma continued, "_But I gave Misato my word that I would watch out for them, and …"_

"Yoiko are you alright?" Shinji asked, having realized that he was walking alone.

"Huh… Yeah, just a little stiff." falling back onto her previous line of thought Ranma gave the boy a thoughtful look before squatting down on the fence and calling out, "Hey Shinji, come on over here for a minute."

"Okay…" Shinji muttered as he tried to ignore the fact that his roommate was currently flashing her panties at him and whomever passed by.

Rei was in a quandary, like Shinji she also was bearing witness to the rather gratuitous panty shot her roommate was giving them and while she was only being ordered to pretend to be Yoiko's friend the orders themselves left a lot of wiggle room in their interpretation. Taking her current example, she could either alert Yoiko to what she was doing and risk alienating her due to embarrassment or she could say nothing and possibly have the matter that she said nothing back fire upon her. Not wanting to disappoint the Commander with a setback in progress Rei decided to say, "Yoiko, you are currently displaying white panties with pink bunnies on them to Shinji. I thought I would make you aware of this in the case that the incident is non-intentional. However should you be intentionally be flashing him your white panties with pink bunnies on them as a measure of flirtation then please disregard my statement,"

Hopping off of the fence with her face flushed from embarrassment Ranma denied, "Unintentional Rei… COMEPLETELY UNINTENTIONAL…" Seeing the beet red face and the way the other kid was sort of flinching away from her Ranma sighed and continued in a much softer tone, "It was unintentional Shinji, I'm just not used to wearing a jumper while walking on fences, sort of have a lot on my mind right now…"

"Sorry Yoiko… I tried not to…"

"Ah don't sweat it Shinji, I'm not going to pound ya for it, It's just a little misunderstanding that's all… These things happen… trust me."

"Ah okay…" Shinji answered back unsure as to what she meant but now slightly terrified of anything like that happening again.

Smiling as she approached the sole physically male in the group Ranma started, "Now as for why I called you over here, give me your hand." Taking the hesitantly offered hand Ranma reassured the boy with, "Hey relax buddy, this is going to help you out." Moving the hand onto her still stiff shoulder she continued while placing her own free hand on his shoulder, "Now just do what I do, grip firmly but not too hard and sort of roll the thumb around like that, then slowly take away the pressure from your grip and reapply like so… Ah much better… Now just continue doing that." Turning her head over to the blue haired girl next to her Ranma added, "Now Rei go stand on his other side… Shinji wrap your arm around her and do the same thing that you're doing to me to her…"

Flushed and flustered in embarrassment at having such intimate contact with two attractive girls Shinji stammered, "But… Yoiko… This… I can't…"

"Hey relax Shinji, trust me on this, this is going to make you the talk of the school and give you a huge boost in confidence, and if anyone asks all Rei and I need to say is, 'Shinji kun is such a great friend he's so nice, he can cook, plays the cello, and even though he felt it improper he risked being seen as a cassanova just to help Rei and I feel better.' Sides as long as you remember that we're just friends I'm okay with this."

Still blushing at the constant contact Shinji turned his bashful gaze to the blue haired girl and asked, "What about you Rei? Is this bothering you? Do you want me to stop?"

"It does not bother me…" Rei replied somewhat surprised at her own answer because surprisingly enough the massage was actually making her shoulder feel better so with that taken into consideration she added, "I shall alert you as to when I decide for you to discontinue."

"See there…" Ranma replied with a grin giving the boy a thumbs up, "She likes this… and you know what? Honestly, you are doing pretty good with this, your grip needs a bit of work but I'm sure with practice you'll have this mastered in no time."

Reluctantly Shinji sighed as attempted to fill his mind with images of hairy Irish sumo wrestlers while pushing away the thoughts of just exactly how much work his grip was probably going to be receiving later due to the close contact he was having with two attractive girls.

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Ranma smiled in satisfaction as her little impromptu plan seemed to be working, sure it had taken most of the day but she could already see some of the results. She had already witnessed several other guys go up to the boy to talk to him. And while the conversations didn't seem to last long the girls sitting near her were already gossiping about it saying that the lad was a true gentleman. Thus drawing even more attention to the kid and despite her own rocky misgivings with the fairer sex Ranma could admit to herself that having so many women chasing after her had done wonders for her confidence._ "Well in general… Romantically, not so much… But everyone wants to feel wanted. Even if nothing really comes from this, Shinji should at least start to feel a little better about himself._"

Turning her attention back to the teacher and his lecture about second impact Ranma briefly considered the option that whatever was messing with her mentally had led to her putting herself out there for the kid. She quickly shook that off though as back before in Nerima she had done similar things for little to no reason or even for the wrong reasons. _"Honestly, as long as he doesn't __start proclaiming everlasting love or stealing my panties I'm actually okay with what I did. Now if I could just find my pencil…"_

After making sure that the teacher was still looking away from her Ranma quickly turned around and asked, "Rei? Can I borrow a pencil or something?"

"Is there something wrong with your computer?" Rei countered back after shifting her gaze away from the window.

"It's broken…" Ranma supplied while holding back her surprise at actually being able to lie, while the truth of the matter was that she had never really used a computer before and couldn't even figure out how to open the one on her desk up. Resigning herself to asking for help with a computer later Ranma took the offered pencil and turned around to start taking notes. After all while this might be common knowledge to the majority of the class she had only the vaguest idea on what happened.

Much to the pigtailed girls frustration though any further Intel on second impact would have to be put onto the next lecture as the classroom suddenly erupted in chaos. _"I hadn't really counted on this much of a delayed __reaction; I mean it was just a shoulder massage… Practically the entire class is swarming the poor kid…"_

"How were you selected?"

"Did you have to have examinations?"

"Were you frightened?"

"How hard was it?"

Ranma almost chuckled to herself as the swarm of girls started rattling off crazy and slightly perverted questions to Shinji only to frown when her eyes came across a guy sitting in the back wearing a track suit. Pity that as then she might have realized that the girls were talking about Shinji being an Eva pilot and not the little show for their benefit earlier that morning.

Moments later the bell rung and eventually the girls surrounding Shinji began to taper off.

"Yoiko, I shall wait for you out front."

"Sure Rei, I'll be along in a min or so, going to wait on Shinji." Ranma supplied before mentally cursing herself for losing sight of the guy in the track suit.

Roughly five minutes later the last girl left and Ranma watched Shinji sag down in his seat before he began collecting his things to leave for the apartment. Thinking that perhaps she had over hyped him up or something she gathered her own things and said, "Sorry about that…"

"Huh?"

"You know all those girls… I didn't think they would swarm all over you like that man."

"No that's not it…" Shinji sighed, "They found out I'm a pilot…"

"Ah…" Ranma supplied cheerfully, "Well if it helps any I've heard chicks dig giant robots… Not this one course, I'll stick to my hands and feet for now… But still."

Chuckling slightly at his roommates attempt to cheer him up Shinji replied, "Thanks Yoiko."

"Hey no problem…" Noticing that they were going the opposite way in which to meet back up with Rei Ranma asked, "Say… where are we going?"

"Someone sent me a message to meet them around back." Shinji answered with a frown.

"A girl?"

"Don't know, they said to come to the back by myself."

Not liking where things were going Ranma nodded and said, "Give me a few minutes to go tell Rei and I'll go out there with you, just walk slowly or something… Okay?"

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Ranma had a sinking suspicion that Shinji wouldn't wait for her, but it didn't really matter as she was much faster than he was so she was able to make it to the front door, tell Rei briefly to meet them around back, hop up onto the roof and down the other side just in time to see the track suit guy go in for a sucker punch.

Toji blinked as he felt a vice tighten down on his hand mere seconds before his fist should have had made contact with the new kid.

"Need something?" Ranma asked neutrally as she glanced back towards Shinji just to make sure he was alright.

"Just trying to give the new guy a friendly warning." Toji supplied with a grimace as he felt the girl increase her grip on his hand.

"Let me guess…" Ranma snorted in disbelief, "You want to date either Rei or I and were going to tell him to back off? Well, let me save you some time, I aint going to be going out with anyone and even if I did it wouldn't be some boy…"

"Huh… NO… I mean yes… I mean… This punk was piloting that robot and because he couldn't even walk my little sister almost got hurt…" Toji stammered in his defense.

"Little sister huh?" Ranma replied skeptically before spotting a familiar looking girl staring at her in shock. "Let me guess, long black hair, green eyes, eight years old or so?"

"Yes… How did you know?" the Jock asked in shock.

Releasing her grip on the guys hand Ranma stated, "Because for one I'm looking right at her and two I also happen to be the one who saved her in the first place."

"Wait you're real? She wasn't making you up?"

"Yeah, I'm real…" Ranma snorted, "After I saved her I handed her off to a guy in a panda suit who took her to safety while I went back to fight the Angel… And another thing, I never got back in the fight. I was about to, but the angel chose to blow itself up instead, If it hadn't been for Shinji there the thing could have tried to swallow me and I know for a fact I'd be a goner right now. I almost died as it was, so not only should you be thanking Shinji for saving your sister by proxy but you should be begging him for his forgiveness. Heck you wanna know something else, for his first time in a Eva he didn't do that bad, sure he couldn't really walk, had problems standing on two feet, Basically fell on the angel, but hey it worked and thanks to his help I made it out of that alive."

Shinji blinked as he slowly tried to decipher Yoiko's backhanded complement and while some of the negative managed to sink in those were quickly outweighed by the positive aspects, _I can't believe she thinks that I saved her life."_

"There has been an emergency, we are to report to Nerv and await further instructions." Rei announced, making her presence known for the first time during the altercation. 

Blinking as she stepped back from the wanna be jock Ranma replied, "Right, you and Shinji go on ahead, I'll be along shortly." turning her attention to the guy in front of her and asked, "What was your name?"

"Toji… Toji Suzuhara…" The teen stuttered nervously as now that the redhead wasn't crushing his hand he could plainly see how beautiful she was.

"Well Toji Suzuhara, might I make a suggestion?" Ranma asked rather sweetly as she moved into the other teens personal space.

"Yeah… Sure… Anything…"

"Good," Ranma continued sweetly, "Why don't you take your sister, head for a shelter, and if the alarm goes off, go inside and stay there until the all clear is given. She's your little sister you should be making sure that she is safe not letting her run around when the alarms are going off. Can you do this for me?"

"Yes…" Toji muttered

"Well get going then."

"Yes sorry…"

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Only staying long enough to see the tall kid grab his sister Ranma leapt up onto a nearby light pole before leaping across the street onto another building.

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Kensuke gaped in awe as he continued taking shots with his camera. At first he had disregarded the rumors of some high end martial artist straight out of myths and legends having fought the angel. Mainly because the whole idea of a giant robot being upstaged was just preposterous. But after taking shot after shot of the new girl as she leapt into the distance he was starting to have second thoughts.

Noticing that his friend was leaving him behind, The bespectacled boy gave chase while announcing, "Did you see that? She jumped nearly 20 feet straight up before bounding all the way across the street…" Smiling as he realized something else Kensuke added, "Dude… I saw her panties… And got pictures…"

Toji stopped in his tracks as what his friend said filtered across his mind, temporarily letting go of his sisters hand he grabbed desperately onto his friends collar and desperately stated, "I must have them… Pictures of the fiery pigtailed goddess…"

Takara Suzuhara rolled her eyes; her brother could be such a pervert at times. Grabbing the much taller and older boy by the ear she ordered, "You can be perverted with Kensuke later. You were told to bring me to the shelter and we're going."

"Awe but sis…" Toji whined as he was forcibly dragged by his ear away from the camera and its treasured contents.

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Ranma had been intent on making her way to Nerv but then in the horizon she caught sight of something big and purple heading in to the city. Thinking that it would be a waste of her time to head back to Nerv only to then head back out to fight whatever was coming her way the redhead altered her course and picked up speed.

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"Where's Yoiko?" Misato asked Rei having sent Shinji to change into his plug suit.

"I do not know." Rei answered, "She stated that she would be along shortly."

Having a certain sinking feeling in her gut about where Yoiko actually was Misato called out, "What's the status on the angel?"

"UN forces have stopped firing and the Angel has slowed it's advance."

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"Hey I have something to talk to you about."

Caught between his sisters glare and his best friends request Toji shook his head and replied, "Uhuh.. No way… I'm staying right here with my sister, not going anywhere."

"But the new girl she looked sort of banged up, what if she gets hurt or something and needs help." Kensuke tried.

"My pigtailed goddess… In danger… We must…"

/CLANG/

"Nerve mind…" Toji whimpered while clutching his aching head.

"Good now that that's settled," Takara stated with a sweet smile, "Kensuke-kun can I braid your hair, I'm bored and my brothers hair is way too short… please…"

Ten minutes earlier

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Craning her neck upwards to get a good view of the angel in the sky Ranma took a moment to really observe the Angel, with it's purple coloring, the long shaft and mushroom shaped head she had to wonder why she was feeling just a tad bit intimidated.

Shaking the crazy thoughts of taping her thighs together with duct tape the redhead tried to form a plan of action. The Angel was too high in the sky for her to jump up there and while she was pretty sure that she could hit it with a Moko Takabisha she really wanted to get into a better position offensively before she started blasting it.

Looking around with a sigh the redhead mentally muttered to herself, _"Well if the others were here, Shampoo could glomp me then Akane would get upset… At least then I'd be able to get up to that thing__…"_

Letting the fond almost wistful smile play across her face before it was turned into a grin of determination Ranma nodded to herself, "They might not be here but I don't need explosive feminine wrath to blow myself up." Smirking to herself as she began to channel her ki and aim it towards the ground Ranma yelled out, "MOKO TAKABISHA…"

"_Maybe this wasn't the best idea…"_ Ranma muttered while flinging through the sky as she realized that unless she did something she would miss her target by a wide margin. "_Well if something works… It works…" _Adjusting herself in midair the pigtailed martial artist let loose a another cry of, "Moko Takabisha." nodding to herself in congratulations as she noted that she was now on target for the angel.

Spinning in midair as she prepped herself for her landing the pigtailed teen noted she was going to land right on top of one of the Angel's eyes, shrugging as she figured landing on a vulnerable spot would be better than just landing on the things skin she began to build up momentum by curling herself into a ball and increasing her spin.

Moments away from impact Ranma uncurled herself and with a cry of, "Meteor Kick…" She struck out with her foot, putting all of her momentum and force into the blow. Not stopping there she flipped backwards and shouted out, "Moko Takabisha." Still not done with her assault she followed that up with, "Saidaikyū Kijin Raishū Dan."

While her opening attack hadn't even caused the Angel to so much as blink the ki attack followed by wave after wave of powerful vacuum blades seemed to have gotten the angels attention while relieving it of the majority of one of its eyes. Noting that thing had stopped it's advance Ranma was quickly forced to forgo attacking the other eye as she found herself hard pressed to dodge the angels two large glowing tentacles.

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Central Dogma

Present time

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With a sickening feeling welling up in her gut Misato ordered, "Bring the Angel up on the screen at maximum resolution."

"Yes ma'am." Makoto answered before zooming onto a point on the Angels head and reporting, "The Angel seems to have taken damage to its left eye and is currently…" Unsure as how to accurately describe what he was seeing, Misato's senior aide stated, "The angel seems to be smacking itself with its two tentacles?"

Palming her face Misato asked, "Did anyone try Yoiko's cell phone?"

"No ma'am…" Shigeru added, "I tried contacting Shinji first but didn't get an answer so I called Ayanami instead." Sensing the upcoming order he added, "Calling Yoiko now, putting it on speaker."

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Hearing a ringing noise coming from her person Ranma sighed, there was only one person whom that could be since she didn't even know the phones number. Dodging another swatting attempt from the angel she flipped the phone open and cheerfully offered, "You've reached the cell phone of Yoiko Saotome, I'm currently busy right now. Please leave a message after the beep?"

"YOIKO… I KNOW THIS ISN'T YOUR VOICMAIL MESSAGE… I CAN HEAR YOU FIGHTING THE ANGEL…" Misato shouted in annoyance.

"ALRIGHT GEESH… I was just kidding anyway…" Dodging another tentacle as it continued chasing after her the red head added, "I am sort of busy at the moment though… I don't suppose that this can wait?"

"NO THIS CAN'T WAIT…" Misato ranted before her voice soften and she started anew, "I want you to withdrawal from the angel and wait for Shinji to get into position so we can coordinate the attack."

"I'm not so sure I can do that." Ranma muttered as she nodded to herself in satisfaction having the Angel tangle his two tentacles into knots in it's attempts to swat at her.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT SURE YOU CAN DO THAT?"

Holding her phone away from her ear Ranma was about to offer a retort when she started to notice the Angel shifting it's position. Waving her arms as she almost comically began to slide down the things shaft the redhead dug in with her free hand and replied awkwardly, "Yeah well about that… See I'm sort of really high up at the moment… And there's really nothing for me to break my fall besides the ground… And well… from this height things could get a little dicey."

"A little dicey?" Misato parroted back as she took note of the Sub Commander looking intently at the screen.

"Yeah well look on the bright side." Ranma commented as she began to scale the purple beast intent on relocating herself to its large purple head while avoiding the almost ribbon like tentacles that were struggling to untangle themselves.

"There's a bright side?" Misato asked incredulously.

"Well yeah, I managed to stop the things advance." Ranma stated almost casually as she leapt upward and to get a hand hold on the lowermost tip of the angels head.

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It had been difficult, but he had managed, sure he was alone, and nearly terrified. He would have liked to get a bit closer to the action but with Toji staying with his sister back at the shelter he just did not feel the same amount of bravado that he normally might have if the taller teen had been with him.

Thankful that a telephoto lens almost covered for his self-preservation instincts Kensuke Aida filmed in awe of the tiny redheaded dot on top of the angel.

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"Unit one is ready for launch." Makoto supplied as forced himself to not stare at the incoming feed.

Nodding for the reminder Misato ordered, "Launch Unit one." Turning her attention back to Yoiko she added, "I'm sending Shinji up now, when he gets there we'll see about getting you down from there."

"No problem." Ranma answered back as she grinned down at the Angels undamaged eye, "I think I can keep myself occupi-eyed until then."

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"_All I did was stumble around and get blown up…" _Shinji dwelled shooting up through the catapult, while completely missing the fact that Yoiko had earlier claimed that his actions had saved her life.

"Shinji, when you get to the surface you are not to use ranged weapons to engage the Angel. Yoiko is already out there and has it distracted. Your orders are to approach the angel, assist Yoiko in a withdrawal and then move back in to finish off the angel. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Misato." Shinji answered quietly as he felt himself coming to a jarring halt signifying his arrival on the surface.

"Good, now, Yoiko is currently on top of the Angels head, it has ribbon like arms but those have already been temporarily neutralized, just approach the angel and watch your back… Oh and Shinji. You might want to deploy your progressive knife."

"Yes Misato." Shinji stated again as he started feeling a little overwhelmed.

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"Yoiko? Can you still hear me?"

"Huh… Yeah… I hear you… Sorry I think I ticked this thing off…" Ranma shouted as the Angel began thrashing around in the hopes of dislodging her from its body.

"Just try to hold on a little longer, Shinji is almost into position."

"Yeah… yeah… crap…" Ranma muttered to herself as she was forced use both hands to hold on as the Angel started to thrash even more violently consequently losing her phone in the process.

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"Shinji, I can't contact Yoiko anymore can you see her?"

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Makoto began panning around the angel, manipulating the feeds to get every angle of the angel in view. After a moment of intense searching he exclaimed, "Captain, found her, she's on the head near its right eye."

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"Shinji, did you hear that?"

"Yes Misato."

"Shinji stop it, just stop it. Just snap out of it, Yoiko is counting on you so get in there and get her." Misato snapped as she tried to get Shinji out of whatever funk he had currently wrapped himself in.

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He was trying he really was, but piloting the Eva just seemed like a daunting responsibility, he wasn't a fighter, didn't know the first thing about fighting. And despite the fact that his role as of yet hadn't managed to really include much actual combat he felt that he should be replaced, that someone else better suited for it should pilot it, someone like Yoiko whom despite everything was managing to combat the angel on her own without an Eva.

Still though Misato's words did affect the boy, Yoiko needed his help and he couldn't let her down especially with how kind she had been to him. Spotting her hanging on up the Angels head he shot forward and tried to hold it still only to scream out in pain as he felt his chest burning.

"Shinji, it's just the Eva, the energy ribbons are charged with the Angels AT field, Just hold on for a minute longer."

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Noticing that the Angel's thrashing seemed to subside slightly Ranma looked down and spotted the Purple monstrosity that was Shinji's Eva. Kicking off with her feet while letting go with her hands she started her fall, aiming for the Eva's shoulders.

"SHE'S FALLING RIGHT TO YOU… GET HER SHINJI…"

"I see her Misato." Shinji stated as he moved the Eva's arm to intercept the small body coming right at him.

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Misato watched with her bottom lip quivering with trepidation as Yoiko's form plummeted towards the outstretched arm of unit one. She had almost let herself relax with secure knowledge that everything was going to be fine when the angel suddenly lurched and freed both its ribbons from their entanglement and struck out at Unit one sending the Eva crashing off to the side.

'"SHINJI… YOIKO…"

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Ranma lay motionless on the ground, momentarily struggling with rotating between consciousness and searing pain. With a pained grunt the redhead pushed past both obstacles and struggled to her feet, noting nearly instantly that her leg was most likely broken.

However, she did have enough wits to realize that lying helplessly underneath a freely rampaging Angel was probably not the safest position, even if said Angel was extremely high in the sky.

Attempting to hobble along out of the way to regain her composure the redhead winced as another building was tore apart by the blinded angels flailing tentacles. Deciding to go with the tried and true method of lightning never strikes the same spot twice the injured teen altered her course to the closest recently demolished building as she practiced a temporary strategic withdrawal.

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"Shinji, Yoiko is down… You are to re-engage the angel and take it down."

"Yoiko…" Shinji muttered in disbelief while staring at the Eva's hand in betrayal. "Yoiko… I… YOIKO…"

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"Unit one has re-engaged the angel." Makoto reported as he watched the battle, only to wince at the shrill shriek that sounded off over the comm that coincided with Unit One rushing the Angel.

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Shaking her head with the hopes to subdue the nagging nausea Ranma turned her attention back to the fight with a grimace, things had been going so well, yet one little slip up had knocked her out of the fight. Spotting something that she might be able to use the redhead mentally corrected, "_Almost knocked me out… Not done yet."_

_12321_

In hindsight Shinji realized that charging blindly at the Angel had probably not been the brightest of ideas. The lesson was further reinforced by the Angel's ribbons severing his power cable. It was not all bad though as he screamed in pain, somehow he had managed to grab a hold of both ribbons and was keeping it in place.

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Ranma knew the dangers involved in trying out a untested technique, but for the most part she felt she had enough of a handle on it to pull it off. The first part was easy enough as she had already figured out how to use her former sensei's draining attack. The problem was that she had hit a road block at that point as she was having a lot of spectacular failings with trying to store the drained ki from the fish in an object.

"_But that shouldn't matter… Well not with what I'm going to do anyway."_

Lifting a semi splintered toilet seat out of the rubble while secretly vowing to not egg Mouse on for his special attack the pig tailed teen shouted, "HAPPO FIFTY-YEN-SATSU…" Satisfied with the incoming ki from the Angel Ranma then began to wrap herself in the soul of ice.

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"Ma'am… The angel is slowing down…"

"Slowing down? Aoba?"

"Yes ma'am… it's like what happened during the previous Angel attack."

"Captain, we're getting some odd readings on the sensors. Minute temperature fluctuations… I'm not really sure, The angel's slowing down and…" Makoto supplied unsure as to what was going on with the sensors.

12343221

'HYRO SHOTEN HA- REVISED STRIKE OF THE COILED DRAGON SMITING THE FALSE MESSENGER" Ranma shrilled out as her temporary circle exploded in her face sending her skidding through the rubble.

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And there you have it chapter 3 of this fic. I was meaning to add a few other works today but I just haven't had time to give them the once over before posting them so hopefully later this week once things slow down for me.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of The Last Grandmaster

Disclaimer, I own neither series depicted in this fic.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to getting around to posting this one, more updates will be following within the next few days, I've just been busy.

I would also like to thank James Axelrad and Nysk for their help with this chapter.

Enjoy

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Nerv Infirmary

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"It really looks worse than what it is." Ritsuko sighed to her friend, "She has a concussion, a broken leg and multiple small cuts and burns on the right hand side of her face and body, luckily the cuts are small and frankly with her I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even leave any scarring behind."

"But she looks so fragile…" Misato quivered as she looked down at the small form laying immobile on the bed.

"Look, Shinji should be done shortly, You want my advice?" Not even giving her friend a chance to get a word in the blond doctor added, "Get Shinji, pick up Rei and go home. Even with how fast she seems to heal she won't be awake for a few days at the least."

"But…"

"Misato, don't make me ban you."

"You wouldn't…" Noting the stony gaze directed back at her Misato gasped, "You would… But…"

"Shinji, Rei, then home." Ritsuko warned before walking off and calling out over her shoulder, "I'll call you if something changes."

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Misato shot her sole male charge a worried glance, while she was aware of Shinji's distanced demeanor she could spot the subtle changes and knew that he was beating himself up over Yoiko's current injuries. Unfortunately knowing the problem and knowing what to do about it were two different things.

There were a thousand things she could say to the boy, but in the end if he didn't want to believe it then he wouldn't. She knew it hadn't been his fault, the Angel had managed to wiggle free and foul things up. Nobody could have predicted that it would have broken free at that moment. It had been an accident, and while it was serious enough to land Yoiko in the hospital the actual damage had been minimal, all things considered.

Sighing as she shot the silent girl in the backseat a concerned glance Misato had to wonder what the girl was thinking. Yoiko was a friendly sort and she would have thought that their recent time together would have bonded them at least a little but looking back at her the woman couldn't see any emotion reflected back in the girls stony face. She was aware that the girl was a bit off, that in her own way she was just as closed off to the world as Shinji.

Out of all of them herself included, only Yoiko seemed to be undamaged on the surface. Sometimes though Misato had seen glimpse of something troubling the girl, a certain restlessness. The fact that the girl seemed reckless enough to charge into a fight with no other protection than a school jumper seemed to make that point obvious. _"Although… Perhaps that is my failing as well… We should be doing more for her, weapons, armor, hell she's the 4__th__ child and no one has even bothered to give her a sync test."_

Resolved to make some changes first thing in the morning once she had a chance to talk things over with Ritsuko Misato decided to make a brief pit stop. And while yes she did need more beer, the store she was planning to stop at luckily catered to both her current needs.

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Rei noticing that the car was slowing down turned her gaze away from the window to the purple haired woman driving to ask, "Why are we stopping?"

"Running a little low on beer." Misato commented before adding, "But since we're here I figure I'll pick up Yoiko something as a get well gift."

The first part made a lot of sense to Rei, the Captain did consume mass quantities of the beverage. The second part gave the girl enough pause to ask, "Is the giving of such gifts customary?"

"Depends on the situation I guess, in this case I think it is… It's more of a non verbal gesture to show somebody that you are thinking of them in cases where they might need a little support from their friends."

Rei nodded mulling the idea over in her head and how it impacted her orders before stating, "Then I too shall buy Yoiko a gift."

"Good… I'm sure she'll be touched by the gesture Rei… Shinji you coming?"

"I'm coming Misato…" Shinji muttered with another look at his hand.

She wasn't sure what had caused it perhaps she had just been waiting for an excuse, perhaps she was just venting her own frustrations out on the boy. But for whatever reason Misato just couldn't take it anymore. Slamming the car door she marched to the other side of the vehicle and forcibly yanked Shinji from the Vehicle while shouting, "IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT… It was an accident, you need to stop beating yourself up. If you truly feel bad about this then just try harder. We can only expect you to do your best and nothing more."

"Misato… But I…"

"You were hit by the angel, it was an accident, and while she did break her leg in that fall that's not what put her in the hospital. Whatever she did… However she did it… that last attack, one that she launched, blew up in her face, that's what happened. You went out there, followed your orders and held the angel in place for Yoiko to finish it off. There was nothing you did wrong."

"But…"

"No but's I'm tired of but's… You did what you were supposed to and that's the end of it."

Sighing in defeat Shinji nodded, only to be caught off guard when the woman whom had just chewed him out envelope him in a hug.

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2 day's later, Nerv infirmary

Shinji stared at the injured girl sadly, despite Misato's words he felt responsible for what happened. "_I don't belong here, she's so much better at fighting than me… She should be the Pilot not me, all I'm doing is taking up a spot that should be hers… I'm sorry Yoiko… But I can't stay here any longer…"_

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Meanwhile in Gendo's office

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"The UN council is showing concerns over what they claim is recless use of the fourth child, they feel that our role as her support is lacking and have made subtle suggestions that we move to rectify it."

"Schedule sync tests for units 0 and 01 once she has healed enough from her injuries. In the meantime have Katsuragi explain to her that she is not to engage in any Angel battles until she is cleared by Akagi."

Raising an eyebrow at his former student the old man asked, "Do you really think that the girl will listen?"

Leaning back in his seat Gendo shot back, "No but we do need to keep up appearances, while her arrival and continued presence is adding minor inconvenience it is nothing that we can't compensate for or even use to our advantage."

Nodding Kozo agreed, "True, any word on the release of the production models?"

"Not as of yet, but that is just a matter of time, old man."

"Oh…" Kozo started, "The Japanese ministry of intelligence has finally saw fit to deliver their files pertaining to pre second impact martial artists. Amazing stuff really, if I had not seen what that girl could do I would be writing them off as pure fantasy. Unfortunately they seem to be heavily redacted, that along with weather damage from a leak at the storage facility will make sorting through the information problematic at best."

"I head heard that there were four truck loads of boxes? Your telling me that even with all that you are still having issues sorting through the information."

"Five trucks, as I said though the files are heavily redacted and those parts that aren't seem to be odd ranting about curses and magic… Pretty much the usual mysticism that one would expect for something that seems so unreal. However I was able to come across a satellite photo of something rather interesting." Taking a large blown up photo out of a folder and sliding it across the desk to his former student Fuyutsuki added, "I believe the analysts called it a Orachi at the time. From what I have managed to gather her mother and some allies fought this creature."

"Her mother, hmm… Any idea on whom else is in this photo?" Gendo asked as he stared down at the tiny blurs upon the giant so called Orachi.

"No not at this time. Analysts are going over the photo but the only reason we can comfirm that this is the girls mother is from fragments of reports that we have managed to put together."

Staring down at the photo with a frown Gendo then asked, "Do we know where this battle took place?"

"No not yet, it's cross-referenced to a missing file. We are trying to map it using distinguishing features depicted in the photo but that is a long shot considering the massive flooding after second impact. Do you think that this was an angel?"

"Possibly, I want this matter a top priority. Take personnel from other departments if you have to but I want to know everything in those files ASAP."

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Ranma blearily opened up her eyes, she had been awake earlier and thought that she had seen Shinji standing outside her door but with the painkillers and everything else she had allowed herself to fall back asleep. Now though she was feeling better, just a slight headache and perhaps just a bit numb. Overall nothing that she wouldn't bounce back from in a week or so.

Taking in the sights of the room she noticed a small arrangement of balloons attached to a weight that was partially hidden by the card leaning against it. Wondering whom it was from she tried to adjust herself in the bed to where she was sitting up more only to pause as her arms movement displaced something.

Resuming in her trek to get comfortably situated Ranma looked down at the item she had displaced and nearly had to stifle a giggle upon laying eyes on it. It wasn't a perfect match but had it come with a tiger striped bandana it would have come very close to resembling her rival/friend.

"Hey there P-chan, long time no see… yeah I know… Just a toy…" The pigtailed girl stated with a slightly distressed sigh, "I wonder what you are doing right now?"

"Wonder what who's doing right now?"

"Hey Misato…" Ranma waved tiredly.

"Don't hey Misato me…" The purple haired woman fired back as she rapidly closed the distance between them and buried the petite redhead in a hug. "I've been worried sick about you…" Breaking away and sitting down in a chair at the side of the bed the woman continued, "What about you? How are you feeling?"

"Tired… Sore… leg itches and got a headache but that seems to be getting better." Ranma replied.

"Well, I'm not surprised, you've been out of it for two days with a concussion, the entire right upper half of your body was covered in small cuts and burns and you have a broken leg." Misato supplied with a frown before asking, "So… how's that headache again?"

"Better… I guess…" Ranma supplied unsurely.

"Good because I have something that I want to talk to you about and I wanted to make sure that you could handle it."

"I suppose…" the redhead stated slowly suddenly suspicious of the look she was receiving from the purple haired woman.

Nodding her head Misato slowly climbed to her feet, after taking a few paces she turned back and exploded, "Don't you ever do something like that again, if there is a emergency you are to report back here first so that we can coordinate our attack. Going off on your own like that was stupid, going off into a fight while still recovering from injuries is stupid, allowing yourself to get stuck several hundred feet in the air is completely stupid. You are so lucky that all you managed to receive from that one stunt was a broken leg."

"But…."

"Uhun, not going to fly. I have to take responsibility for you and I am not going to see you get killed because of some half-baked plan of attack. Did you ever think of how your actions might affect the other's they're not like you, hell, no one is like you but Shinji and Rei are so closed off that I was hoping to count on you to open them up a little. But if you're going to be pulling stunts like this…"

"I'm sorry okay…" Ranma tried in frustration, "I was going to head back to Nerv but then I saw the angel and figured I'd buy you guys some time so I took it on… It's not like I wanted to get hurt or anything those things just happen…" Parroting a line from her old man the redhead shot out, "The life of a martial artist is fraught with peril."

"I can see that…" I just wish you'd be more careful about this. I… We… You're among the best hopes this city has to defeat the angel… You should take full advantages of what we can offer you…"

"But Misato… Nobody's really offered me nothing but some clothes and a place to live and I just don't see how a fuku and furo are going to help me out… Well I guess you guys got me those fish…"

"Oh right the fish…" Misato parroted back as she sank down heavily in the chair making a note to herself to stop by the pet store on her way home before adding, "Well as of today that changes, I've already put in a request to see about you taking a sync test in a Eva but until then and even after, armor, weapons, training supplies you just name it and I'll take care of the rest."

"Anything?"

"Yes anything."

"Cause there are a few things I could use." Ranma stated back.

"Well, tell me what you need and I'll get it for you."

"Okay…" Ranma said thoughtfully, "Well for starters I suppose I could use a catapult."

"A catapult?"

"Yeah, you know like those old wooden ones, I'm going to need something that can propel me pretty far up in the sky so I can work on my landings."

"ARE YOU INSANE… I'M NOT GOING TO GET YOU A CATAPULT…"

"You're right that's a bad idea, it'll take more than just me to operate it as someone is going to have to launch me, how about a giant sling shot? That would probably be best because then my gluts, lower core and quads will get a bit of a work out at the same time."

"You have to be kidding me…"

"No… No… Really it'll be fine." Ranma assured as she watched the woman's eye start twitching.

"There is no way I'm going to let you use anything to propel yourself across the city…" Noting the thoughtful look in the other girls eye Misato added, "And no I'm not going to let you dive out of a plane without a parachute… Though for rapid deployment issue's perhaps a helecop… No just no."

Sighing in defeat Ranma tried again with, "Okay how bout a compromise."

"Alright…" Misato agreed, "What do you have?"

"Well…" Ranma explained, "I need some all around body conditioning. So I was thinking we have all this rubble left over from the angel fights right?"

Nodding her head and knowing that she probably was not going to like what was coming Misato said, "Yeah there's a lot of collateral damage out there."

"Good…" Ranma nodded cheerfully, "See what I was thinking is that we could tie me up and then use the larger pieces of the rubble as a wrecking ball of sorts and let me try to bust it apart with my finger."

"YOIKO… THAT IS NOT A COMPROMISE…"

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Rei sat silently at her desk staring out the window not really listening to the teacher as he droned on about second impact and it's global ramifications when a video message appeared on her computer, _"Strange… I do not usually get messages… Still though I should probably play it, it could be important."_

After pressing play the blue haired girl raised an eyebrow, it appeared to be home video of the last angel battle, wondering if she should report this as a possible security violation the teen continued to watch in slight disinterest having watched the majority of the battle up to the point where Unit one had it's power cable severed.

Had the teacher actually been paying attention to his students and turned around he might have witnessed the entirety of his class staring forward with their mouths agape in disbelief as they stared at their monitors in rapt fascination.

Moments later when the last bell of the day rang the students even one Hikari Horaki was too engrossed in the video to do anything other than sit and watch.

About a minute later when the footage ended is when the whispers started and moments after that just as she was finishing gathering her supplies Rei noted the class rep nervously walking towards her. Standing up to face the other girl she asked, "Did you need something Horaki-san?"

"You're friends with Saotome-san right?"

"Yes."

"Uhm… Do you know? is that tape…" Hikari started to say before how preposterous the idea that the video was real fully hit her, only for her to pause again as she was reminded about the rumors circulating from the other students as well as the existence of both the Angels and Eva's, "Was that real? Are Saotome-san and Ikari-san alright?"

At first the girl was unsure as how to reply as she had thought that the information was classified, but the fact that Shinji was a pilot was already common knowledge and no one had directed her that Yoiko's abilities were to be kept secret. Even when she took her orders from the commander into consideration she was left teetering a fence of indecisiveness so hoping to clarify the situation she asked, "Are you Yoiko's friend because it would be unwise for me to discuss the matters of her health with someone that would seek to harm her."

Taken slightly aback at the blue haired girls answer Hikari replied, "Well I just met her the other day and she seemed real nice, but as class rep I have a duty to make sure that everyone gets their assigned work with her being a new arrival here I want to make sure that she's not falling behind."

"I see…" Rei stated while picking up her things, "Shinji has been feeling unwell since the last angel. And I am unsure as to Yoiko's current conditions, I was directed that I may inquire after school." Realizing that the other girl was not following her Rei paused and added, "You may come but first I must stop at home for an errand. If you intend to buy her a get well soon gift, I purchased her socks… Just so you know, as I was told that it can be awkward when two people buy a person the same thing."

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Sometime later

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Nerv infirmary

121

"Anyway Yoiko…" Misato stated after looking down at her watch, before he gets here I wanted to talk to you about Shinji and Rei. Shinji mostly as I think Rei is slowly making progress… But I know I asked you to watch out for them before. I'm just really worried about him. He's been in an awful rut these past few days and I just want you to be careful about what you say around him."

"What? Did he say I said something or did something?" Ranma asked trying to figure out what was wrong.

"No, nothing like that." Misato reinforced, "It wasn't anything you said, he just feels really guilty about you getting hurt and believes that it was his fault."

Shaking her head Ranma replied, "Misato, what am I supposed to do? I know the poor kid has no confidence, I'm trying to help him out."

"You're doing fine Yoiko, I know I've been asking a lot of you. It's that you're just so much more vibrant and full of life than Shinji or Rei and I really think that you would be a good influence like a big sister or something to them."

While somewhat gagging internally at the idea of actually being anyone's sister Ranma did manage to reply, "I'll try." It wasn't that she was against the idea of being someone's sibling but rather she would prefer the bigger brother role as mentally despite her physical appearance she still internally identified herself as a male.

"That's all I can ask Yoiko."

"Knock knock… Yoiko you have company." Ritsuko called from the doorway. "Rei brought a classmate by for a visit."

"Heya doc…" Ranma called back with a nervous wave hoping that it wasn't that weird guy in the track suit.

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Hikari trailed awkwardly behind Rei as they followed the tall blond doctor into the room. She had been ready to turn around several times during the trip both to Rei's apartment and Nerv because she had not wanted to intrude on a family affair. However her curiosity over Ayanami and the new girl apparently had too large of a pull on her. Of course she also had her duty as class rep but even she knew that to be a rather shallow excuse to invite herself along.

"Misato, I went back to the apartment to collect Shinji as per your instructions but was unable to locate him. However I was able to find this note." Taking a few steps closer to the older woman and holding the note out Rei shifted her attention to the redhead currently in bed and asked, "Are you feeling well?"

"Yeah I'm fine…" Ranma stated before motioning over to a bundle of socks on a nearby table, "Thanks for the socks."

"I thought that they would convey my desire for your continued health

as well as retain a practical use for some time."

Watching Dr Akagi nervously as the blond woman approached her with a small pen light Ranma asked, "What are you going to do with that?"

"Just going to give you a quick once over, don't worry it's nothing too invasive so your guests can stay."

Misato whom had been reading the letter over and over again dropped it on the floor as its words finally sunk in and said, "Ritsuko, can I see you in the hall for a min?"

Looking back at her friend in irritation the blond replied, "This is only going to take a moment. Can't whatever it is wait a few?"

Scooping the paper back up off the floor and thrusting it in the other woman's face Misato questioned. "Look?"

"Look at what? It's really hard to read with the way you are waving that about." Ritsuko commented in annoyance as she went to snatch the note only to lose her grip on it sending the note floating down on the other side of the pigtailed girls bed where it landed on a side table.

"Here let me…" Ranma started.

Not wanting to give the girl a chance to see the note, Misato lunged over the sitting girls body, momentarily struggling with her reach while unintentionally mashing her cleavage into the injured girls face. Unable to reach to the note from her prone position Misato climbed more fully onto the bed straddling the pig tailed girl while reaching out with her hand. Snatching the elusive note with her fingers she looked down with a blush finally noting their position and apologized, "Sorry Yoiko… I… I didn't want you to strain yourself… you should be taking things easy."

Staring at her longtime friend in disbelief over her actions the blond doctor asked, "You said something about talking to me in the hall?"

"Right, right… I'm coming…" Misato replied awkwardly as she tried to dismount from the redhead accidentally shooting the already flustered girl a panty shot in the process.

Looking past the retreating forms of the two women with a slight almost non existent blush at Misato's back side Ranma tried to shake away the images she had just seen before noticing the other girl in the room and awkwardly coughing into her hand and changing her mental subject with, "You're the class rep right? Horaki…"

"Hikari Horaki." Hikari said sticking out her hand before remembering about the small get well card she had picked up. Nervously shifting that to her other hand she replied while holding it out, "I'm sorry that I didn't have time to get the other students to sign it but I did not find out about your injuries until school had ended."

"Ah… No problem…" Ranma stated easily, "I'll be back at school in a few day's and probably recovered from this within a week, two at the most."

The brunette looked at the redhead doubtfully for a moment before asking, "Are you sure? No offence but you look pretty beat up."

"Hey you should see the other guy." Ranma joked.

"Other guy?" Hikari questioned.

"Yoiko is referring to the Angel battle 3 day's ago."

"Wait that tape is real? I heard rumors from the one before that but… You can actually throw energy blasts?"

Having actually came up with a small technique to demonstrate that fact since about the third time Doctor Akagi asked about it Ranma held up her hand with a small globe of ki floating over it and replied, "Yeah, been training most my life for it."

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Meanwhile in the hall

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"Of all the stupid…"

"Calm down Misato, Nerv security will find him and bring him back."

"Ritsuko… That's what I'm afraid of, he doesn't like to pilot and we do have Yoiko, she seems more capable…"

"So you don't want him to come back?"

"Yes. No… I just want him to do what's best for him. If he truly doesn't want to be here I don't think we should force him to be. We do have other options."

"Misato, we don't even know if Yoiko can snyc with an eva yet. Like it or not Nerv is a part of his life now, his destiny if you will."

"I don't know… I just don't know… I can see it being Yoiko's destiny, the supposed last grandmaster of a lost art. A sole girl out of myths and legends fighting with her fists to save the world, sounds almost like something out of a anime."

"Compared to emotionally distressed kids piloting giant robots?"

"Touché…" Misato conceded.

"So do you know what you are going to tell Rei and Yoiko?"

"The truth I guess… They're going to find out sooner or later, that is if Rei doesn't already know and hasn't told Yoiko."

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Later that evening

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After a visit with Rei and Hikari that went rather well despite Ranma herself leaking out that she did not know how to use a computer. And another visit spent with Misato as she ranted about Shinji doing something stupid like running off Ranma had offered to go look for the kid. That's when she was in turn ordered to bed rest at the cost of even more bed rest if she didn't listen.

But it was an order that Ranma just couldn't listen to. She had already given Misato her word beforehand that she would look out for the kid and to her that was a tad bit more important to her than sitting around in some hospital bed doing nothing all night.

Having made it to the door the redhead peeked outside, upon seeing two security guards that were no doubt there to keep her in her room Ranma smirked while it was true she was a little under top form and the only thing she currently had for clothes was a backless hospital gown the redhead did have a few tricks up her sleeve. So with a silent flourish the redhead disappeared from view and went looking for some clothes to swipe before leaving the building and starting her search for the errant Shinji.

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Ritsuko cursed looking back at the video feed of Yoiko's room, she knew that the girl was going to try something, that's why she had two of Nerv's bigger security force members standing guard outside of the girls room as well as having taken the liberty to activate the security feed in the room.

She hadn't actually thought that the girl would have been able to escape unnoticed. Rewinding the feed to get the time stamp for her departure the blond woman let out a string of curses, no one had told her that Yoiko could turn invisible.

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Ranma hobbled down the street clad in hospital scrubs and a lab coat cursing herself for her vanity at not wanting to use the crutches. It wouldn't have been so bad if she had a walking cast but due to the nature of the break that just hadn't been possible. Still though she had made a promise to Misato and hobbling along on one foot was just another challenge for her.

"Ranma-sama you should not have left the infirmary."

"…" Ranma tried, only to find herself unable to speak the male kunoichis name.

"Not here… There could be eye's on us… Rooftop, three buildings down, two to the right. Go up to the roof."

"_Dammit Konatsu… I want to know what the hell is going on… Why can't I say my name, your name, or even… urggg…_"

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Ranma didn't waste any time once she realized that Konatsu had disappeared moments after giving her instructions. Sweating from exertion from what on a good day would be a walk in the park for the locked girl she managed to make it after only a few minutes, ten at the most if she counted a five story elevator ride. She didn't.

Taking the last few steps at a hobbled hopping stride the redhead flung the door open and burst out with, "Alright dammit I want some answers as to what is going on? Why can't I tell everyone my name is Yoiko… Dammit… See that's what I'm talking about…"

"Growlf"

Laughing somewhat hysterically at the realization that Konatsu wasn't there to meet her but her father Ranma tried, "Funny Mr. Panda…" shaking the sweat from her brow she tried again, "Mr. Panda…"

/Boy/ Genma signed.

/it's no use/

Flip

/They had to take precautions to keep ourselves hidden for the time being/

Flip

/The fate of the planet is riding on this operation/

Flip

/not to mention some of our humanity/

Flip

/I wish I could tell you more son/

Flip

/As things are I might have mentioned too much we don't have a lot of time./

Shaking her head again the teen called out, "Ha… Nice trick…"

/Boy I'm being serious here/

Continuing as she stumbled backwards slightly Ranma muttered, "Sort of like… Splitting… some… hat hairs… except it's making me all dizzy and stuff.

/Boy/ Genma signed frantically, /are you alright?/ not hearing his son turned daughter reply and noting that she was slowly staggering towards the edge of the roof the old panda sprung into action, retrieving his sons body before it could fall and cradling it in his own furry arms. "_You've been pushing yourself too hard boy…"_ Sighing as he realized his only and next move Genma pulled out a cell phone and dialed out. Hearing the other end pick up he growled while worriedly thinking, _"You better be okay boy…"_

"I will be there momentarily."

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Cradling his unconscious current daughter gently in his arms Genma turned his head at the extremely faint sound of foot falls landing on the roof. Growling at one of the people approaching him he motioned to his son turned daughter while giving the shorter of the two a baleful glare.

"I am well aware of your feelings Genma but we both know what is at stake here. Set me down Konatsu."

"Yes elder."

Approaching the two the wisest of the Chinese Amazons requested, "Lay her down on the rooftop Genma so I can get a better look." Frowning as she then stood over the prone redhead Cologne replied, "Ranma will be fine, he's just over taxed and still suffering trauma from the head wound he received a few days ago." Tapping her chin in thought she added, "The best I can do at the moment is tap a pressure point that should rouse her in a half an hour and leave her semi lucid for an hour before she passes out from the strain."

Growling in irritation Genma signed, /We should have assisted him during the last battle. We take too many risks with my sons life./

Cologne sighed at the old argument, she almost preferred the old Genma to this new one, "We do what we must…"

"Ahem…" Konatsu interjected, "If I may… Forgive me for speaking out of turn but I believe that this argument should be relocated to someplace a little less open. There are camera's everywhere elders."

"Konatsu is right. We can bicker like old maids once we have taken care of the current problem at hand."

/What's left to take care of? I will deliver the boy back to the hospital myself./

"Too risky…" Cologne muttered, "Konatsu are we still tracking that boy that shares residence with Ranma?"

"I believe so elder, I will call headquarters and inquire about it."

/Absolutely not!/ Genma fumed, /We will not be leaving her with that boy. Not when she is vulnerable and…/

"It is too risky to approach Nerv directly, not until we have more Intel on their security. Our observations on the boy indicate that there is nothing Ranma has to worry about. Besides we will have operatives in the area that can and will intervene should our intel be proved wrong."

"Elders…" Konatsu started, "The boy is currently riding the E train circling the city. He has been there several hours."

Begrudgingly Genma knew that the old biddy was right, despite that it didn't make him feel any better. Stepping back to allow Konatsu access to his boy the aged panda pulled out a small panda shaped plushy and set it in his current daughters arms.

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Circles, he had been riding in circles all afternoon and into the evening. He hadn't even bothered counting them with how many loops around the city he had done as he just sat there dwelling on his own cowardness for running away. But there sitting on the train he could almost lose himself in the routine. Five minutes stop, ten minutes stop, back to five minutes stop and so on for the entire afternoon. _"Another stop… How many has this been… does__ it really matter? Do I even matter? They're better off without me… Yoiko can take my place; she's much braver than what I'll ever be…"_

Poke

"_At least with me gone…"_

Poke

"_Useless…"_

Poke

"_Not worth it…"_

Poke

"Hey kid, I think your lady friend is trying to get your attention."

"Huh…" Shinji muttered as he looked up to see a smartly dressed salary woman towering over him with a glare.

"I said, your lady friend is trying to get your attention."

"Aint… No lady…"

Shocked upon hearing the sound of the voice Shinji stared dumbstruck and muttered, "Yoiko?"

"Heyz… I know… uz…" Ranma slurred out.

"It's me, Shinji… Yoiko what are you doing here?"

"Shinji? Right Shinji…" Ranma replied drunkenly before focusing her blurred vision on the boy next to her, "Say I went looking for you… Found ya…"

"Yoiko you shouldn't be here, you should be back in the hospital." Shinji replied worriedly.

"Couldn…t… Justs… Misato mizzed u…" Ranma staggered out with a frown before adding, "Say… whatz yuz name…"

He was torn, he wanted to leave Nerv, Misato, Yoiko, and even Rei behind feeling that they would be better off without him but seeing the powerful redhead as she currently was he knew he couldn't just leave her because if he did it would just be one more failure. And while he might be okay with failing something's he couldn't fail her this time, something bad could happen to her.

Resolving himself to just bringing her off the train and getting a taxi to run her back to the hospital Shinji rose out of his seat and sighed. "Come on Yoiko, the train is going to be stopping soon we can get off there and get you back to the hospital."

"Ain't… Goin… Nowhere… out you…" Ranma enunciated slowly.

"Okay… But first lets get off this train." Shinji tried.

"Kay…"

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Shinji frowned upon looking around the nearly vacant platform, he hadn't realized that it was so late and from the looks of things there wasn't a taxi in sight. Yet he still couldn't go back to Nerv, to Misato, Yoiko and Rei. Sometimes he didn't even know why he came in the first place, because his father needed him? His father didn't need him. Even if he did, Shinji didn't like pain and surely he felt that it would have hurt a lot less if he would had stayed where he was at.

Realizing that the girl at his side had resumed poking him again Shinji turned to her and asked, "Yoiko? Why do you fight the angels?"

Ranma blinked rapidly having realized that she was still suffering from head trauma as she swooned slightly in her seat. However she was feeling slightly more lucid than a few minutes ago so she braved a reply, "Dunno… I guess I can so I do… trained since fore I could walk… What good is all that training if I didn't… my old man used to talk bout… It's a duty to protect the week… life is fraught with peril… and ya gotta make sacrifices for it… aint easy… " Motioning over her bruised and slightly broken body Ranma added, "Odds are it's gonna hurt…"

"I don't like pain…" Shinji muttered more to himself than to Yoiko.

Ranma snorted girlishly and replied, "Don't either… It happens and you got to work through it if ya gonna live…"

Sighing as he turned away from the redhead Shinji considered her words and even though he didn't want to face it perhaps he did have to stay a bit longer.

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"I'm still with them. They didn't notice me slipping off the train after them."

"…."

"No, left from a different car and slipped around the corner. Do you want me to say with them?"

"…"

"Okay, I'll wait then." Silently closing her cell phone as she waited for her relief to arrive the smartly dressed business woman took a moment to consider the injured redhead, _"__That was close. On the train, Ranma shouldn't be able to recognize me at all, Cologne put a lot of precautions in place to prevent that from happening without the proper triggers."_

Not wanting to stay in one spot so as to avoid suspicion in case someone looked at the stations security feeds later Nabiki Tendo casually started to leave the platform, heading in the opposite direction of the still sitting teens while considering her next move.


	5. Chapter 5

The Last Grandmaster Chapter 5

Disclaimer, I own neither series.

Many thanks to James Axelrad and Nysk for their assistance with this fic.

Note: I've been doing continuous subtle rewrites of this fic, the previous chapters are still the same for the moment. I'm doing this mainly because I think some readers are reading too much into the back plot of the story so I am trying to taper it down a degree. Reviews are welcome.

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A few days later after the events of last chapter

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"Oh come on Misato…" Ranma groused irritably, "The doc told me I could use crutches."

"Not exactly she said that you could use them, she didn't say anything about you actually using them… Seeing that she also told you to take things easy… And since you don't like to listen to things concerning your health…" Misato rattled off as she continued to push the girl through the hall.

"But a wheel chair?" The redhead protested before grumbling out, "And did you have to chain me to it?"

"It's for the best." The purple haired woman answered easily.

"You know I can snap easily these chains… Right?" The redhead questioned while leveling a baneful glare down to her waist.

"True… But then you won't get any ice cream later…"

"I'll be good." Ranma supplied quietly while mentally cursing the woman for knowing one of her few weaknesses.

Glancing down at her charge with a victorious smile only to take note of the way the girl was sitting with her legs parted Misato sighed out, "Honestly Yoiko, sometimes you are such a boy." Leaning over her charge and gently pushing her thighs together she finished, "You don't want all the boys trying to look up your skirt do you?"

Blushing from the feel of the older woman's chest briefly brushing against her face Ranma grumbled, "Shouldn't be wearing a skirt in the first place…"

"Ah, but you look so pretty… Misato teased before adding as she leaned forward to wring the bell, "Besides I figured that it would be easier to slide that over your cast."

"Hey I can open the door from here. No sense in having someone else get it.' Ranma stated as she made a move for the handle.

"Nope, let Shinji or Rei open the door." Misato stated as she pulled the chair back earning an indigent squawk from her passenger.

"…" Ranma tried as the door swung open and she was greeted with a loud shout of surprise.

Grinning lightly at the sight before her Ranma offered, "You guys didn't really need to do this."

Pushing the redhead through the door Misato offered, "Yes we did, it's been too quiet round here without you to liven the place up." After pausing to swipe an offered beer from Shinji the woman added, "Now let's get his party started… YEEE-HAWW NOW THAT'S THE STUFF…"

"Wow talk about being a lush Misato… You just got here and you're drinking already." Ritsuko teased as she swooped in behind Ranma and began to wheel her further into the room.

"Hey, all work and no play makes for a bad day." Misato cheered as she disappeared into the kitchen for another beer.

Stopping in front of Rei and another girl from the redheads school Ritsuko took the bag hanging off the handles and asked, "Rei could you put this stuff away in Yoiko's room.

"I'll help…" Hikari offered relieving the woman of the medium sized bag. as she correctly assumed that the blond woman wanted to speak to the redhead for a minute. "Which room is it Rei?"

"This way." Rei motioned as she stoically tried to ignore the floppy party hat that Misato had made her wear.

"Well she seems to be opening up a little…" Ranma noted as she watched Rei lead the brunette down the hall.

"It seems that way doesn't it." Ritsuko noted curiously before coming around to face the seated girl to say, "I'm going to unlock the chain. The way I see it you have two options, you can take my advice as a medical specialist and take things easy for now, or you can continue to disregard your wellbeing and next time I will chain you up and lock you in the darkest dungeon I can find at Nerv until I am satisfied with your health."

Sweating at the intimidating glare being shot her way Ranma conceded, "I'll take your advice.

"Good… I'm glad you've decided to see things my way."

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Taking a look around the sparsely decorated room Hikari asked, "This is Yoiko's room? Seems kind of empty."

Pausing to take in the room Rei once again re-evaluated her orders. She had not been having much success in finding Yoiko doing anything of a really suspicious manner. After doing a lot of research she had decided that perhaps the reason why she wasn't having any luck was that she did not talk very often and as such could not garner the information the commander wanted. To that end after the class rep had decided to approach her regarding Yoiko's and Shinji's health Rei had decided attempt to befriend the girl thinking that perhaps the other girl with her more talkative nature could unknowingly assist her in her own goals.

To that end Rei answered, "Yoiko does not have many possessions."

"Oh…" Hikari stated diplomatically before cheerfully adding, "Perhaps when she gets out of the wheel chair we can go shopping or something." Spotting an empty fish bowl she added, "Does she like fish?"

Tracking the other girls gaze Rei frowned marginally and answered, "Yoiko has two fish, I will be right back."

"What a strange girl… Though I am glad to see her finally opening up a little, she's always been so quiet." Shrugging to herself the brunette began to dig through the bag and arrange its contents in the room.

"Plushy Panda… Set that on the bed… Stuffed pig… Next to the panda… Socks… I'll just set that on the dresser… Two cards… Next to the socks… Deflated balloons… night stand…"

Splash

Looking up Hikari saw Rei emptying the contents of a plastic bag into the fish bowl. Curios as to what the other girl was doing she moved in a little closer to see that the previously empty fish bowl now had two fish in it.

Not really feeling a need to explain her actions but realizing that if she wanted the other girls unknowing assistance then she should offer an explanation Rei supplied, "Yoiko's fish have been disappearing in her absence, Misato picked up several replacement fish and has been storing them in the hall closet."

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"Hey that smells pretty good." Ranma commented as she wheeled herself into the kitchen. "Who's cooking?"

"Out…" Misato commanded while pointing to the living room, "Shinji is, and dinner will be ready soon, so go find Rei and Hikari and ask Rei to set the table."

"I'll do it." Shinji stated as he began to rummage through the shelves to get everything ready.

Giving her friend an odd look Ritsuko commented, "You seem to have things well in hand. I would have never guessed that you were this good with kids."

Snorting in disbelief Misato returned, "Naw, when Shinji cooks I have to keep Yoiko out of the kitchen cause if I don't the food might not make it to the table. Haven't you ever seen the girl eat?"

Shaking her head the blond doctor replied, "No not really, just when I was in her room when meals were brought in… I guess she did sort of inhale it."

"That's putting it mildly." Misato stated back while giving a wave to Penpen and adding, "And you… Stay out of the fish bowl… I mean it or so help me no more beer for you."

"WAARK…" Penpen replied indignantly with a sniff as he made his way into his cooler.

"I heard that mister." Misato warned.

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A little later after dinner.

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"That was Really good Shinji." Ritsuko complemented easily before adding, "It's a definite change since last time I was over, instant ramen in beer."

"Hey, that was good stuff…" Misato defended.

Turning her attention to the redhead at the table Hikari asked, "Yoiko, Rei mentioned something at lunch today about you aggravating your injuries when you went to go look for Shinji?"

Still feeling embarrassed over his own decision to leave and then return Shinji bowed his head hoping to hide the flush of his cheeks.

Ritsuko looked before the brunette and then the redhead who seemed to be debating her answer. Having not yet received an answer from when she had asked the girl earlier that day she added, "You mentioned you used a secret technique and that it was supposed to be sealed or something."

"Yeah…" Ranma started out awkwardly with a tug to her pigtail, "It's a technique my grandfather came up with…"

"Right you mentioned that earlier, but why is it supposed to be sealed?"

Sweating a little bit from the curious looks she was getting Ranma finally relented, "Well originally, gramps, he well came up with them for stealing, and sealed them once he realized their full potential."

"But they're unsealed now?" Ritsuko prodded after glancing around the table and seeing the intent looks of interest upon the redhead.

"Uhhh… Not really, but I don't use any of them unless I think it's necessary, I was still sort of feeling that concussion when I used it so I probably won't be using that one again…"

Thinking that perhaps this information might be important Rei decided to ask, "How does probably infer that the technique will remain sealed."

Surprised at the fact that Rei was asking her that Ranma defended herself with, "Well… Some of the other sealed techniques have proven to be very effective in damaging the angels so far, so I really can't say that turning invisible won't help at some point. I know of a few other stealth techniques so it all depends on the battle."

"Yoiko? Might I ask a question, I don't mean to pry…"

Shrugging Ranma replied, "Hikari? I guess…"

"But did you say that your grandfather created techniques for the sole purpose of stealing?" Hikari blushed.

"Yeah…" Ranma replied, "I don't know what he was thinking back then but at least he wasn't like the grandmaster of the school."

"Ohhh… Do tell…" Misato pleaded wanting to know why her grandfather not being like the grandmaster of their art was a good thing."

"The letch created a lot of his techniques to make stealing girls underwear easier."

Snickering Misato shouted out, "Wait so the grandmaster of your school was a panty thief?"

"How… I mean what possible techniques are there that could possibly be used for that?" Ritsuko wondered out loud.

"More than what you would think." Ranma stated before continuing, "The technique that I was working on with the fish, originally was used to drain the angry ki from nurses at a hospital. And there's other techniques that go along with it but then there's several techniques that the letch would use to steal them off of the women wearing them…"

"Yoiko is this guy still around?" Ritsuko asked noticing that the girl seemed to have a small amount of personal venom leaking into her words.

"Not that I know of… He just used to always harass my mother and she would tell me stories… Still makes me angry…" Ranma muttered, remembering just how often the letch would seek her out just to cop a feel.

"Enough of about that…" Misato slurred slightly, "How was he taking them off the girls wearing them… Was he like…"

Shaking her head the redhead almost wanted to deny it outright but found herself saying, "Sort of, he was mostly harmless… Well not harmless, more irritating… But he basically limited himself to groping and stuff."

"Yeah but… How did he do it, it just seems that there's really only one way to do it and that's… well…" Ritsuko leaded wanting to know where the conversation would go.

"You really want to know?" Ranma asked as her shoulders slumped in defeat, "Cause I can show you if you really want to see."

"As long as it's nothing too explicit and Shinji-kun can watch…" Misato teased while batting her eyes at the sole physically male in the room.

"Fine…" the redhead finally conceded before adding, "Remember you all asked me to show you so no calling me a pervert… " Looking over at the purple haired women next to her she added, "And I really can't do this to myself, So I sort of need a volunteer."

"Yeah yeah…" Misato waved off, "Go ahead and show us this technique."

Flushing a deep scarlet Ranma shakily reached out with her hands before frowning in concentration to keep them still.

121

Shinji's eye's nearly bogged out of his head while he watched Yoiko shamelessly and blatantly fondle his guardians breasts. Despite being transfixed by the motions the boy colored in embarrassment for his guardian, this was compounded with a face palm as he witnessed what happened once Yoiko withdrew her hands.

Slightly buzzed from drinking Misato's own cheeks colored in embarrassment and slight arousal as the smaller girls hands gently massaged and kneaded her breasts. Only for her eyes to widen in disbelief when she felt the hands withdrawal leaving her chest in their natural position. Unable to believe it despite knowing it to be true the woman looked down while holding her top away' from herself and exclaimed, "Wow… That is some hell of a party trick you got there kiddo!"

Holding the older woman's bra in her hand Ranma replied uncomfortably, "My mother said he was a lot rougher and would use a couple of pressure points in there… To maximize… Well… That's pretty much the technique."

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"I'll call you tomorrow Rei, maybe we can all do something." Hikari suggested warmly as she hugged the girl good bye.

Stepping in to the conversation Misato reminded, "Rei has an activation test tomorrow with her Eva so she might be busy."

"Oh…" Hikari blushed before adding, "Well good luck with that then and call me if you get done early." Seeing the girl nod at her the brunette then turned her attention to the chair bound redhead and stated, "And you Yoiko, you take care of yourself okay, we don't want you falling behind any further than what you already are in your school work."

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Wheeling into her bedroom Ranma paused and hit the lights to look around, for a brief second when she came in she could have sworn that she heard the scurrying of little feet. At first she didn't see anything out of place, everything seemed to be where it was the last time she entered. "Deflated balloons on the nightstand… check… plushy panda on bed… check… stuffed pig next to panda… check… realistic looking penguin in-between stuffed animals… check… one fish swimming in bowl…"

"Wait a sec…" Ranma thought to herself, "Did that penguin have a fin sticking out of its mouth…"

"Oh here you are." Misato interrupted unknowingly aiding her good friend in his endeavors to remain hidden.

"Oh hey Misato. I tried to help clean up but Shinji wouldn't let me and Rei pushed me into the hall before telling me that my 'presence was not required."

"That's fine, they know that you are supposed to be taking things easy."

"Yeah but…"

Shrugging the older woman replied, "If it helps just think of yourself as our little princess until I tell you otherwise." Concerned over the loud gagging noises coming from Yoiko Misato asked, "Are you okay?"

"No I'm fine…" Ranma stammered out nervously as she continued to mentally choke on the idea of being a princess.

"Okay then, well I guess its bath time then… "Misato said before switching to a faux British accent and adding, "My lady… The bath has been drawn and your handmaiden awaits."

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"Rei?" Shinji started while drying a glass.

"Yes Shinji?"

"Your sync test tomorrow are you scared?" Trying to clarify himself the male teen added, "You know, because of what happened last time with you getting hurt."

"I have faith in the commander…" After pausing to consider her next words Rei added, "Don't you?"

Shaking his head Shinji replied, "I… No…" the boy stated after a moment's consideration, "I don't think I ever will… I don't trust him, the only reason he even sent for me was because he had a use for me, not that he wanted me."

Rei paused, her first reaction was to smack Shinji seeing that she held an obviously higher opinion for the commander than what he did. However she also had to consider her orders, given that Yoiko was friendly with Shinji hitting him could have unforeseen consequences. Turning away to leave the room she chose instead to offer, "Perhaps you do not know the commander as well as you think."

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Later that night

Ranma lay in her bed wishing that she could sleep but the events in the bathroom with Misato had her distracted on many different levels. First and foremost on her mind was the realization that whatever was going on with her and leaving her without the abilities to tell certain truths seemed to have worked their way into at least some of her reactions.

At first she hadn't really thought that there was anything wrong, that Misato was just wheeling her into the washroom so she could wash herself. Then upon the command of strip by the older woman when Ranma herself had tried to resist she had instead found herself caving into the request. Sure she had been outright refusing mentally, and although she had managed a few spoken refusals they had been only token ones, something one would expect to come from a solely independent person being put in that type of position.

So much to her inner horror she had eventually stripped but that hadn't been the end of it. No once she had her clothes off the older woman had taken hers off as well. And while Ranma had tried to squeeze her eyes shut and look away lest she be accused of being perverted or something she had found herself looking. Not the usual flat footed blood is about to erupt out of my nose look the pigtailed current girl had become accustomed to from her time in Nerima but more of a shy demure look that spoke very softly of the sheer amount of awkwardness she had actually felt.

An awkwardness that was only made worse as she was gently moved from her chair and onto a washing stool by an equally naked apparently naturally purple haired bombshell whose hands then began to softy stoke her back in an effort to relieve some of the massive amounts of pent up frustrations the redhead had begun to feel.

The worst part was though now that it was over Ranma couldn't get the picture of a nude Misato standing over her or the soft gentle hands of the older woman as she pampered her. So while the initial experience had been somewhat mentally terrifying the memory afterwards was bringing other strange emotions into play. Emotions that were sending a weird tingling down her spine, making her heart flutter, and filling her with a need that she would have steadfastly ignored back in Nerima.

But she wasn't in Nerima. And the longer she thought about that night's later events the stronger the need became until she just couldn't resist anymore and allowed her hands to begin their own exploration of her own body.

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Several hours later

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Genma slowly crept through the halls carefully smothered within the wraps of the Umisenken as he looked for his child's room while keeping a mental clock running of just how much time he had. It had been almost too easy to get into the apartment as it seemed that the sliding doors on the balcony were kept unlocked, but then again as it was not on the ground floor no one probably saw that much of a need to keep it locked. However to a Panda of Genma's skills, locked or not that would have never been that much of an issue.

The main problem at the moment for the aged Panda was how much time he had before someone noticed that he had left his post and thus potentially interfere with what he was about to do.

"_I have maybe another day or so before the others decide that I need to be br__ought back tightly into their grasp." _Genma considered as he slowly slid open a door to reveal his current daughter sleeping peacefully on the bed. Sliding the door closed behind him as he dropped his technique the greying panda slowly approached the bed taking only a brief moment to silently reflect on his own failings before spotting the panda plushy.

"_I know the old biddy suspects something, but for some reason I think most of us are in the same boat. Whatev__er they did to Ranma they did to all of us, Nodoka Soun, Konatsu, even the old biddy... I think the only reason why I'm able to fight it off if just barely is because I'm not human anymore. The other Amazons… Shampoo and Mouse… They're still asleep I'm not even sure that they were ever woken up, and after that first Angel battle they put Ryoga back to sleep…" _Sighing as he made his preparations he added_, "I just hope this helps… I'm too useful right now, but that can change real fast. I don't know when I'll get another chance or even if I'll get another chance…"_

Scooping the stuffed panda off of the floor with his paw Genma took another moment to just stare at the plushy while channeling his ki and imprinting a multitude of emotions into it. Once he was satisfied with the results he took his free paw and reached out to gently wake his slumbering child.

Slowly with a sigh of regret Ranma returned to the land of the waking, she had been having a rather pleasant dream. For a while she had been back in Nerima sparring with her father, being a guy, and going off to college with Misato.

"_Wait… That's not right. I went to school with Akane…" _The current redhead thought as she stretched before moaning softly after having snaked one hand under her blanket, _"Still though, it was nice, kissing Misato in the park in-between classes, right where I used to meet Akane."_

Turning his head at his current daughters actions Genma let out a very light growl in an attempt to garner his progenies attention before she started to do something to make the situation awkward.

Jerking her hand back from its current course Ranma's eyes shot open as she realized that she wasn't alone, "Mr. Pan!"

/Quiet boy/ Genma signed as he dropped the plushy in favor of stuffing his paw over his sons face before she could finish what she was about to say, /You don't want to wake the others/

"_Pops… What's he doing here? Is he going to tell me what's going on?" Ranma thought to herself while she waited for the panda to move __its paw._

Seeing that he had Ranma's attention and that she wasn't making an effort to swat away his paw to yell at him Genma signed, /I don't have much time, the others will notice I'm gone soon/

Rolling her eyes while she motioned towards the paw covering her mouth Ranma settled into a annoyed glare.

/Right/ Genma began as he withdrew his paw, /As I was saying/

"You don't have a lot of time…" Ranma whispered with a heated glare, "Can you at least tell me what the hell is going on? Or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

/What is your name?/

"Dammit Mr. Panda… Tell me what's going on!"

/Just answer the question/

Clenching her hands into fists Ranma growled out, "Fine… Yoiko Saotome…"

/Who am I?/

"Mr. Panda…" The redhead answered gritting her teeth while slinging both legs off of the bed.

/Good/ Genma signed, /You can still get angry at me. Do you trust me?/

"Of course I trust you…" Ranma muttered only to realize that she meant to say that she currently only trusted the panda as far as what Chibi Hinako could throw him.

/I want you to try something/ Genma replied as he tossed the ki filled plushy at his current daughter, /hold that/

Angry and frustrated over her limited ability to communicate she replied, "I don't need some stupid toy. I need answers…"

/Hold onto the toy and tell me what your name is/

"Fine…" Came the muttered reply, "I don't see how this is going to change anything. My name is…" Ranma started only to trail off as she noticed the panda holding another sign, "Ranma Saotome." Blinking in slight shock over being able to correctly state her name the redhead stated again, "My name is Ranma Saotome… I am Ranma Saotome! The sign say's my name is Ranma… What's going on?"

/Boy they did something to all of us/

Flip

/Put the toy down and try again/

Setting the toy down with a nod of her head the current teen replied, "My name is Yoiko Saotome… Dammit…"

/Again with the Toy/ Genma signed while holding the sign with his child's name on it behind his back.

"My name is…"

/fight it boy/

"Y… Y… Ranma…"

/So it can be broken/ Genma sighed in relief before continuing /It'll take time but if you stay away from the others you should be able to break out from underneath them/

Flip

/Don't trust any of us/

Staring down at the plushy panda in amazement Ranma replied, "I don't understand?"

/I don't either./

Flip

/I just know that when they woke me up something was different/

Flip

/I couldn't even bring myself to warn you before/

"But… Now?" Ranma tried as she looked back down at the bear, "What's so special about this plushie?"

/It's a Ki attack/ Genma replied with a sign, /Think of it as a more advanced form of the Hells Cradle./

"How is this going to help though? It's not like I'm some little kid and can carry some stuffed animal around?" Ranma asked as she stared down at the panda in her arms while trying to focus on the small slivers of ki that she could now sense coming off of it.

Holding out a blue notebook with a panda on the cover Genma signed back, /With this./

"You want me to keep a Dairy?" The redhead asked as her eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

/It's a journal/

Flip

/And it's the only way that I can think of to keep you separate from what they did/

Flip

/focus on the truth and write it down/

Flip

/Don't let anyone see it/

Flip

/Keep the journal on you at all times, don't let it out of your sight/ Genma signed quickly as he sensed someone else in the apartment waking up.

Feeling that her father was about to bolt Ranma asked, "Wait! This Ki attack? What is it? Maybe I can duplicate it."

Shaking his head as he took another step back Genma added, /It's everything I want for you/

Flip

/My pride/

Flip

/My faith./

Flip

/My desire to protect you/

Flip

/Someone's coming, I have to go now. I love you son./

Flip

/Next time you see me don't trust me./

Hearing the padding of feet coming down the hall the aged panda took a step back towards the door and once again called upon the full technique of the Umisenken to fade from view just in time for the door to slide open.

"Yoiko? I heard voices. Is everything alright?" Misato asked tiredly as she stepped into the room before feeling something brush up against her.

"Huh? Yeah…" Ranma muttered morosely to herself as her fathers parting words filtered through her, "Sorry, was just talking to Mr Panda… Didn't mean to wake you."

Putting off the feeling of someone else brushing against her as her just being tired Misato sighed at the depressed look radiating from the usually vibrant girl before sliding the door shut and approaching the bed. Plopping herself down next to the redhead and wrapping her arm around her she said, "You can talk to me… If you want."

"I know… I'm just confused and tired… I just need some time to think…" The redhead replied wearily as she hugged the bear tightly against herself before leaning into the older woman.

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Nerv the next day

121

"Good luck Rei." Ranma cheered as she watched the girl get loaded into the entry plug of Unit 00.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Shinji asked Misato in concern.

"Yeah… Probably…" Misato replied unsurely, "Ritsuko's been working on it, but there's a lot of things about the Eva's that we don't understand."

"Really?" Ranma asked with only a faint blush showing on her face that had started showing up whenever she looked at the older woman from having woken up spooned alongside her, "Didn't you guys build them? How can you not understand how something works when you put it together?"

"Uhhh… Actually that's a really good question." Misato answered, "But I have no clue, you'd have to ask Ritsuko that. All I know is that they are Bio mechanical androids… I think, well I know the specs of them to a certain point so I can do my job but a lot of the information is classified beyond my clearance."

"Oh…" Ranma stated dubiously as she watched Rei's entry plug be inserted into the Eva.

"You know what…" The Nerv Captain started, "This window is really only good for watching, we should probably head on over to the control room so you guys can get a firsthand look at what goes on in the booth."

"Is my father going to be in there?" Shinji questioned unsurely, "I'm not sure…"

"Yeah… You're right… Besides we got a nice view right here." Misato said while mentally cursing herself for forgetting about the problems Shinji apparently had with his father. Switching the subject slightly she turned to the still seated pigtailed girl and asked, "Don't you agree?"

"Huh… right… wait…what… I wasn't looking…" Ranma denied uncomfortably while simultaneously tearing her gaze away from Misato to look back out the window while she listened to speakers giving her a play by play of Rei's activation test that was signified by Ritsuko coming over the loudspeaker and ordering, "Connect the main power supply."

"Main power engaged, voltage reaching critical point."

"Hey Misato, Who said that?" Ranma asked over the brief moment of silence in between orders before hearing the doctor speak again with, "Roger. Move the format to Phase II."

"Oh that was just Maya."

"Connect the pilot with Unit Zero."

"And that was Shigeru Aoba, you might not have met them yet." Misato added before being cut off by Maya with, "Open the circuits… The conditions of the pulses and harmonics are good… "

"There are no problems with synchronization. All nerve links are completed. Nerve center devices are operational… Recalculation shows no error modifications." The male voice from earlier stated.

"So does that mean everything is okay?" Ranma asked as she peered at the still Eva on the other side of the window.

"Not quite, but things are looking good right about now." as if to confirm her point Maya's voice once again came over the speakers to report, "Checked. Up to 2590 on the list satisfied. Until the absolute critical line, 2.5, 1.7, 1.2, 1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, and rising! Borderline cleared…. Unit Zero has activated."

"Now everything is good." Misato stated, "Rei just synced with her Eva."

"Oh…" Ranma stated unsurely, _"Well that seemed anticlimactic…"_

"Unidentified object is approaching, scanning now… Confirmation it is the fifth Angel."

"_Stupid thoughts jinxing me…"_ Ranma mentally ranted before asking, "Fifth Angel?"

"Shinji, Yoiko come with me." Misato called as she took off towards the control room while calling over her shoulder, "Yeah you fought the third and fourth angels Yoiko."

Turning to Shinji as she wheeled herself along Ranma asked, "Did you fight the first two then?"

"Uh… No… Second impact was caused by an Angel." Shinji answered as he came to a stop.

"Wait what?" Ranma said as her tires skidded to a halt.

"They didn't tell you?" Shinji asked.

"First I'm hearing of this…" Ranma stated suddenly wishing she had been a lot more lucid when she had met her father.

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"Shinji… There you are, you need to go get into your plug suit to meet the angel." Misato urged as she ran back towards them, "Yoiko, come with me."

"Misato?" Shinji asked

Coming to a stop in front of the boy the older woman leaned down to where she was eye level with the teen to say, "Rei isn't ready to go out there and we really need you to do this."

Shinji nodded in understanding, he didn't want to do it but at the same time he knew he had to do it.

Seeing that Shinji was off on his way Misato turned to the girl in the wheel chair and said, "You're coming with me."

"You know I don't need to go to the infirmary to get this cast off right?"

"Yoiko…" Misato tried, "You're not going out there this time."

"What? Why not?" Ranma questioned clearly not happy with the decision.

"Your leg is still broken and you still need to finish recovering from the other injuries caused by the last angel." Misato fired back irritably.

"And you guys are going to send Shinji out there all alone. I can heal later. This is important."

"I don't have time to argue with you on this, but you promised not to engage an Angel until you were cleared by Ritsuko… Or did you forget?" Misato fired back before turning back to the central dogma, "Now you can either come with me or stay here but you are not going out there."

Grumbling at being forced to sit on the sidelines the redhead caved into Misato's orders.

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"Launch unit one."

"Unit one launched."

"Good, now Shinji…" Misato started

"High-energy reaction detected inside the target!" Aoba called out in alarm.

"What?" Misato stated in horror as the Catapult finished transporting the Eva to the surface, "Shinji move… Duck…"

"Shinji…" Ranma echoed as the boys screams of pain sounded over the comm.,

"Retract unit one now…" Misato called out while racing out of the room.

Worried for the wellbeing of her roommate Ranma rolled after the woman, listening as Misato continued to bark orders from over her shoulder.

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"Shinji is going to be okay." Ranma muttered to herself while watching Misato working with her team in an attempt to figure out the angels exact capabilities. She would have stayed in the infirmary to keep an eye on the poor boy but he wasn't due to be up for a few more hours and until then she had the choice of sitting in the infirmary and be angry or go with Misato and watch her as she tried to find a means to bring the angel down.

Of course to the pigtailed Martial artist the solution was rather simple, just take her cast off and send her on her way. But Misato would not allow it and the only reason she hadn't snuck out on her own was that she wanted to know more about the angel.

Shaking her head as another drone was destroyed Misato leaned back inter seat and said, "It's almost perfect both offensively and defensively. It fires with its cannon the moment a threat comes into view and it's AT field is just too strong to take out without doing more damage to us than it.

Ranma stared at the monitor in disbelief, Nothing was perfect and there was always a way to win, sometimes it just took a while to figure it out. The thing didn't even look that menacing to Ranma as she just thought it looked like a box sitting on its corner with a long drill coming out of it.

Shaking her head at thinking her plan wouldn't work but still feeling a need to find out Ranma asked, "Misato?"

"I'm Kind of busy at the moment, Yoiko." The woman replied as she stared at the monitors looking for an answer.

"That's fine… I just have a quick question."

"No I'm not sending you out there yet. Maybe later if Shinji doesn't wake up, but not now."

"That's not it actually," Ranma started, "I was just wondering on if the underside of the angel where the drill is coming down is covered by the AT field? And what the minimum distance from its base that the angel can fire unto?"

Furrowing her brow in thought the Nerv tactical officer asked, "Do we have that data?"

Looking up from his terminal Shiguru stated, "According to the data we have the underbelly is vulnerable but the minimum range of the Angels particle accelerator cannon is unknown. We can try to extrapolate it from the Angels overall shape and elevation but there'd be no telling how accurate the estimation would be."

Frowning Misato stated, "So the underbelly is vulnerable… That really doesn't change anything though, we still can't get close to the angel on the surface… there's no launch tubes… Makoto pull up a grid of the cites maintenance tunnels and sewer lines and tell me if any of the tunnels are large enough to accommodate a medium sized transport vehicle."

"Captain, there are two tunnels that dip within the estimated minimum range of the Angels weapon."

"Misato, if the underbelly of that thing is vulnerable I can go through one of the tunnels and take it out with a revised Hyru Shoten ha like I did with the last Angel… Or at least keep it distracted long enough for a Eva to be able close in on it."

"Yoiko we already covered this you're not going out there…"

"But…"

"No buts…" Misato stated as she considered the redhead, "I think I have something but I'm going to need to run it by the Magi first. What's the ETA on the angels drill breaching the Geofront?"

"A little over ten hours."

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Commander Ikari's office.

"A multi-tier attack while sending up decoys to distract the angel with the primary attack using a high energy convergence unit gives us the best odds at defeating the angel."

"And the Magi?" Gendo asked.

"All three agree and give it a 47 percent chance of success." Fuyutsuki stated while glancing down at a more detailed version of the plan.

"And what of the fourth child?"

Blinking as she wasn't sure what the man meant Misato stated, "Pilot Saotome is still recovering from injuries and will not be participating in this attack."

"I see, you may proceed with the plan Captain, you are dismissed."

"Yes sir…" Misato offered with a salute before heading back to central dogma to put the plan in motion.

Once the woman was gone Fuyutsuki turned to his former student and stated, "Even with the fourth child not actively involved in the assault the success percentages of the plan are only increased due to the Evangelions having extra support."

"True." Gendo nodded, "However there is a difference in this operation as our Eva's will be the deciding factors and be the ones that deal out the final finishing blow on the angel. Even if it is not our weapon it will still be wielded by our hands."

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Thunk… thunk… thunk… thunk…

Cracking his eyes open with a wince of pain from the headache he could hear pounding away in his skull Shinji muttered, "What happened?"

"Ah good you're awake… Hey Rei, Shinji's up hurry up with the food would you!"

"Yoiko?"

"Yeah, hey there. How're you feeling?" Ranma asked as she slipped a small rubber ball into a side pocket of her chair and wheeled herself over.

"You were aware that I was just retrieving the food from the hallway?" Rei asked as she pushed a cart into the room.

"Yeah but Shinji's probably starving so I figured that I would let you know."

"Actually, I really don't feel like eating now." Shinji muttered as he made an effort to sit up.

"You sure?" Ranma asked eyeing the plate of food, "I mean yeah its hospital food and all but eating something might make you feel better."

Shaking his head negatively while pushing away the plate Shinji affirmed, "No thanks…" Noticing the redhead eyeing the plate he added, "You can have it if you want, it'd just go to waste otherwise.

"Thanks' Shinji, I'm starved…" Ranma chirped happily as she left her chair to sit on the bed so she could reach the tray better.

"I have been instructed to give you this." Rei stated setting down a new plug suit down on Shinji's lap, we will be leaving in sixty minutes to prepare."

Noticing a scowl on the redheads face Shinji asked, "Yoiko? What's wrong?"

"They shouldn't be sending you out there." The girl ranted, "I should be out there, but they won't even let me try to sync until after my leg heals."

He had been about to say something about wishing she could go out there instead of him too when he remembered the conversation they had at the train station. He knew she didn't like pain either and that she had suffered greatly in the two previous battles and despite that she still wanted to go out there again and face this new angel. "I wish I was as brave as you Yoiko."

"You're doing fine Shinji…" Ranma said as she shifted positions on the bed so she could lean and ruffle the boy's hair, "I've been dealing with stuff like this a bit longer than you have that's all."

Shinji just nodded dumbly, normally he might have been able to make a reply but the shorter girl was still leaning in, having moved her hand to his shoulder leaving him with a spectacular view of the girls assets as they peeked at him from beneath her tight tank top.

"I would like to hear about some of this stuff." Rei inquired as she realized that there could be some valuable intel in the girls past if she had been in similar positions before.

"Some other time." Ranma deflected automatically while twisting to the side, parting her legs just slightly.

Suddenly aware of a potential awkward situation arising as he tried not to look up Yoiko's skirt, Shinji shuffled the unopened plug suit onto his lap while asking, "Could you guys give me a min or two so I can get changed."

"Yeah sure. . We'll be in the hall; Rei's been helping me with this new technique where I make a ki barrier like what the angels have. Doctor Akagi asked me if I could emulate it last night but I need someone to throw stuff at me to see if I can get it to work. Though it would probably work better if they were at least bladed weapons." Ranma awkwardly rattled off as she hopped off the bed after realizing why Shinji had moved his plug suit.

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Nerv briefing room

121

"Okay, Shinji, Rei… Listen up. At 12:06 the Angel will have breached the final layer of the Geofronts armor. We currently have about five hours left. Eva-01's armor has been repaired and we currently moving onto the final stages of the plan." Misato paused before bringing up a overhead map of Tokyo 3, "This is the Angel's position here. These two highlighted sections beneath the angel are maintenance tunnels that we will be using to spearhead our attack. At 12:04 we will detonate a series of small explosions that will expose the tunnels to the Angel, by 12:05 two modified Eva sized weapons, one special positron cannon and one pallet rifle will be moved into positron under the Angel and begin firing remotely."

Pausing to move on to a broader map of Tokyo-3 Misato continued, "At the same time we will begin launching Eva mock ups from the catapults in an effort to distract the angel from the real threat."

Bringing up a zoomed out map of Tokyo-3 and the surrounding countryside Misato pointed to a red x and started, "This is Mt. Futagoyama and will serve as our Snipers nest. Using a automatic positron cannon on loan from the JSSDF Unit 01 will begin preparations to fire with Unit 00 on standby with shield that our technicians have estimated will be capable of blocking the angels beam weapon for 17 seconds."

Shutting down the display Misato leaned onto the table and continued, "We don't know how long the Angel can sustain his beam or how long it takes for it to switch from target to target. Hopefully we will be able to keep it distracted but if we can't then you need to be ready to step in and keep Shinji covered until the positron cannon is charged and Shinji can take the shot."

"Misato?" Shinji asked as he nervously raised his hand.

"Yes Shinji…"

"Shouldn't I be the shield and Rei operate the cannon?"

From her position in the corner Ritsuko piped in, "Operating the automatic positron cannon requires a lot of precision, due to your higher sync level you need to be the one to take the shot,"

"But I've never done anything like this before…" Shinji started.

"It's fairly simple to operate. All you really need to do is line up the shot and get a lock on the target once you do that the computers will do the rest of the work."

"Now Shinji…" Misato started, "Because of the energy output demands to penetrate the Angels AT field we are going to be taking all the power from across Japan and putting it at your fingertips… Read the cannons manual, ask any questions and when the time comes stay calm, this is our best chance to defeat the Angel." Pausing to look around the assembled group she then added, "Any questions?" Not seeing any hands raised Misato nodded and finished, "Good, go get changed we will be moving into position shortly.

"Misato?" Do you have a minute?" Ranma asked once Shinji and Rei had left the briefing room.

Glancing down at her watch Nerv's Chief tactical officer nodded, "A few minutes… What's up?"

Frowning as she glanced down at her hands the redhead started, "I really don't see why you guy's couldn't have tried to put me out there. At the least you know that I can take a lot more punishment that Rei. I'm not saying that piloting an Eva is simple or anything like that cause I have no idea what it's like but if all I needed to do is get in front of an energy blast and hold a shield I know I can do that."

"Yoiko, why is this so important to you?"

Shaking her head Ranma tried to put her thoughts into words, "I would rather it be me out there instead of Rei and Shinji, they're just kids… I've been training nearly my whole life… Sitting around like this… When others are out there fighting…"

"Yoiko…" Ritsuko stated as she stepped into the conversation, "Sometimes you have to let others fight in your stead. Like it or not. Your broken leg would interfere with your sync ratio and the output of the angels beam cannon is too high for even you, one little misstep and you'd be vaporized and in your current condition there would be a very high possibility of that happening."

Chewing on her lip Misato considered her words carefully, before Ritsuko had stepped in she had been about to call Yoiko a kid too but despite her physical age Misato knew better. She knew that despite her physical age the girl probably had a better head on her shoulders than a lot of older kids. Squatting down to be eye level with the teen the woman confessed, "Yoiko, Ritsuko's right, sometimes you can't fight…" Leaning forward and offering the redhead a smile she added, "Besides it's not like you didn't contribute. Originally I was thinking about just having Rei as the shield and Shinji with the laser. But thanks to you asking questions when we were analyzing the angels capabilities I added the distractions to the plan and increased our probability of success by over 36 percent."

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On the other side of the door

121

Rei listened intently from the other side of the door. She wasn't completely sure as to how relevant the information was but she was sure that it was valuable insight into Yoiko's personality. Turning away from the doorway so she wouldn't be caught ease dropping the blue haired girl couldn't help but feel something akin to the faith that she held in the commander for the redhead. After all if the other girl's mere presence and questions had led to a 36 percent increase in the mission outcome being a success, then that was a good thing.

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Mt. Futagoyama 12:00:34

"Okay people, we only get one shot at this so let's do it right. Start first connection."

Looking down to double check her readings Maya replied, "First through 80th tank, starting power transfer. "

After flipping through a series of readings Makoto added, "Voltage up. Powering up the water exchange unit. All cooling systems at full power… Temperature stable."

Looking up from his screen Shigeru added, "Positron charge is nominal."

Misato, "Time is 12:03, start second connection. And prepared to detonate shafts."

"Starting all accelerators. All power supplies to the submission station on Mt. Futagoyama."

Nodding Misato commanded, "Detonate tunnels in 5... 4.… 3.… Detonate now."

"Shafts detonating, moving weapons to engage target." Makoto supplied.

"Release all final safety systems, begin firing secondary weapons and begin sending up catapults 4,7, 13, 14, 18. Three second delay between launches…"

"The angel is taking fire within the AT field, no response from target." Lt. Aoba called out…"

Speaking directly into his mic to Shinji Makoto rattled off, "Adjustment for the gravity field and revolution of the Earth is minus 0.0009. 0.2 to the critical voltage."

"Ma'am…" Shigeru called out, "Getting a reaction out of the Angel, it has begun charging… It's firing, Catapult 7 has taken light damage Balloon has been vaporized, the Angel is charging again, Catapult 4 has been damaged… Sensors show that the angel's charging rate is being affected by the secondary weapons fire… Ma'am the diversion is working… The angel is targeting the decoys…"

Nodding Misato commanded, "All energy to the positron rifle... Shinji prepare to fire in 3... 2... 1... Fire, Shinji fire now…"

"Positron laser cannon is firing on target… Angel is still distracted… It's stopped firing and is charging again, laser cannon impact…" Shigeru hurriedly reported, "Target is down… Repeat… Target is down and showing no signs of regeneration."

"Confirmed, Angel is down… Readings are showing that the core was destroyed." Makoto reported with a sigh of relief.

"Yes… We did it…" Misato cheered before commanding, "Alright let's start getting things packed up, Withdraw Units 00 and 01... Good job everybody…"

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	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer, I don't own either series depicted in this fic.

late last week i posted a slightly different version of chapter one other chapters are coming along shortly.

Many thanks to James axelrad and nysk for their help.

And now for:

The last grandmaster chapter 6

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Nerv

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"Well… It seems to have healed…" Ritsuko stated while looking over the x-rays, "Truly remarkable, given the severity of the break that it only took about two weeks to heal…" Holding up her hand at the pigtailed girl to stall any comments the blond continued, "I know you heal fast, still though, it's impressive to those of us whom would have been laid up for a few months…"

"What can I say, I heal fast." Ranma replied with a grin, "So can I take this cast off now?"

"Actually why don't I take it off, this is my office, the last thing I need is stray bits of plaster making their way into every nook and cranny of the room."

"Why are we in here anyway I would have thought that we'd just meet in the infirmary after my x-rays?"

"I have a couple of different things going on right now and this was easier for me" Ritsuko replied with a shrug before adding, "Don't worry though, I have the saw right here." After plugging it in the woman continued, "Just set your leg up on that other chair and I will have this cast off you in no time."

"Sure thing doc." Ranma replied with a grin as she propped her leg up.

Starting at the foot and working her way upward with the saw Ritsuko asked, "So how's school been, I heard that it was quite the spectacle on your first day back."

Rolling her eyes Ranma replied irritably, "That's puttin things mildly… I got mobbed as soon as I got there, and 'cause Misato still wouldn't let me use crutches I was almost late to class. When I finally do get there and go to my desk there's all kind of stuff piled on it."

"Stuff? What kind of stuff?" Ritsuko asked with a smile already having heard about the stuff from Misato.

Rolling her eyes again as her fingers impatiently strummed the desk in anticipation of finally getting the cast off Ranma replied, "Well there was some food,…"

"Just food?" Ritsuko asked again.

Shuddering at the memory Ranma sighed and relented, "Naw, there were lot's of love notes, some panties, a few pairs of boxers, and then there was a stack of photo's of me with little post it notes asking me to autograph them…"

"Well I'll admit the panties and boxers are sort of odd… But what was so bad about the photo's?"

"The pictures were of me… flashing my panties… From right before I went off to fight the fourth angel…" Ranma grumbled in embarrassment before heatedly adding, "I ripped them up, but when I came back to class after lunch there were even more there… stupid perverts…"

Having finished cutting through both sides of the cast Ritsuko replied, "Well I suppose there is a lesson to learn in there somewhere, but I'm sure that this will blow over in a week or so. At the least it should taper down to a more manageable level."

"Yeah I guess…" Ranma replied not convinced at all mainly due to the fact that half of the post it notes had requested that she sign the pictures as the fiery pigtailed goddess.

"Well…" Ritsuko started as she shook her head at the redhead's unladylike position, "A little feminine modesty probably would go a long way in curbing that."

"_I'm a guy… don't need no feminine modesty…" _The redhead tried to say on reflex, but only actually managed to say, "I'll try…"

"Well, perhaps I can help you with that Yoiko."

"Err… How?" Ranma asked as she held back another shudder, though this one was mostly due to her imagining the blond doctor as a secret master of ladylike martial arts.

"Well, it's mostly the reason I had you come down to my office rather than the infirmary." Ritsuko confessed, "Misato put in a request that got passed on to our tech decision, which was in turn handed over to me as I had to ensure that it met certain standards… " Motioning to a large briefcase next to her desk the blond added, "It's quite heavy for me to lug around… Why don't you open that case up and take a look."

"Sure doc." Ranma replied with a shrug somewhat curious as to what was in the case.

"Is something wrong?" Ritsuko asked as she watched the redhead stare down into the now open case with her right eye twitching like mad.

"Uhhh…. Noo…" Ranma drawled out slowly unsure as to whether or not she would even be able to voice what she thought was wrong with the pink and metallic black monstrosity within, "Just… It's nice and all… But… Pink? What is it?"

"That, Yoiko is the most advanced set of combat armor available in the world and taken up several notches by our tech division." Ritsuko stated with a flourish before continuing, "While it is pretty much impossible to actually make you personal armor that would be able to stand up against an Angel, this suit will offer you more protection than your school uniform. Now this won't protect you from being blasted or hit by an angel. That's just not possible so we had to go a different direction with this armor. So I guess calling it combat armor is a bit of a mis-representation as to what this does. It's more of a highly advanced cushion, we did this due to the majority of your injuries being a side effect of battling the Angels rather than the angels actually hitting you… For example the angel didn't break your leg; technically you did when you fell. Hopefully this armor will help mitigate those types of injuries…"

Smirking a little the blond doctor tacked on, "Plus it has the added benefit of not giving out panty shots to anyone whom might be watching."

"I suppose…" Ranma conceded while holding back a shudder of revulsion at the suits almost offensively girly theme.

"Protection from panty shots aside, this suit has several features built in it." After walking over and withdrawing a thick metal belt Ritsuko continued, "The under armor of the suit is pretty much a reinforced plug suit with a few minor adjustments so that the additional armor can be attached to it. The functions of the armor are routed through the plug suit and into the belt." pointing at a small dial that was repressed into the belt she added, "This should come in real handy for you should you find yourself stranded on top of another angel as the suit is equipped with a glide function. To get that to work you move the dial and then bring both arms straight down to your sides and then move them outward, leaving you with a set of gliding wings from your wrist to just about mid-thigh, your legs are also equipped with this function."

"That's kind of neat…" Ranma admitted, "…probably come in handy sooner or later."

"Oh… But I'm not done yet, this suit comes with a lot of other features for example the helmet has several different setting and can allow you to function in hostile environmental conditions or even underwater. Has a built in communication system, night vision, infrared, enhanced zoom. Following me so far."

"Yeah." Ranma nodded.

"Good…" Ritsuko replied, "The last main function is pretty basic, you twist the knob here in the opposite direction and climbing spikes come out of your shoes and hands." Sliding the belt back across the desk Ritsuko added, "That pretty much sums up the special features of the suit. The only thing left is a standard combat knife, while pretty much worthless against an Angel we thought you might be able to make some use out of it. If nothing else it can serve as a emergency handhold… And now for the final piece…" Ritsuko stated, "If you would take out the large back section of the armor there should be a big disk mounted on it…"

"This?" Ranma asked, "What's this for."

"Release that lever there… Good… Now after you explained to me about the technique you used to defeat the fourth angel you mentioned that you thought that the circle you used for the technique was too small given the massive amounts of energy you had drained and the fact that you really had nowhere to store it… Is that correct?"

"Yeah… I think so, I really can't be that sure though until I try it again but I'm pretty sure that's the problem." Ranma stated unsurely as she looked at the thick round disk she now held in her hand.

"Well we took that into consideration and managed to come up with that, just place your hand on the grip and hold it in front of you… well off to the side more Yoiko, I don't want my office damaged." Seeing that the redhead comply Ritsuko continued, "Now just press that little lever with your thumb."

SHINGGGGG

Ranma blinked as she stared at the now nearly five foot wide in diameter disk she was now holding before grinning, "Thanks doc… Guess I won't have to worry about toilet seats blowing up and smacking me in the face anytime soon."

"I suppose not… If only the same could be said of Misato…" the blond doctor muttered before adding, "Now, before I send you off to meet up with Misato and the others I was wondering if you had made any progress in making a shield with your ki?"

"A little, it's not very strong yet…" Ranma replied with a shrug before smiling, "But I'll get there."

"Good, I can't wait to see it once you have it mastered." Ritsuko commented before saying, "Now, I think I've kept you long enough. Time for you to meet up with Misato and the others…" Sniffing her nose for a moment she added, "Though you might want to wash that leg up a bit first…"

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With Misato

"Welcome to the cooperative combat training hall…" Misato announced with a flourish as she pushed open two large doors to reveal a much scaled down version of Tokyo-3.

"Uhm… Misato? What are we doing?" Shinji asked as he looked past his guardian and into the vast room filled with scaled down buildings and roads to the layout of Tokyo 3.

"If you listened, then you'd find out." Misato scolded with a smile before continuing, "In this room we will work on teamwork, coordinating your attacks, getting to know the city, weapon cashes, power supply stations for your evas, catapult release points. This is a complete mock up of Tokyo-3 everything in the city is in here, even some of the buildings can lower themselves into the floor."

Urging the group to follow her Misato continued, "Now I bet you're saying to yourselves, 'but Misato we already know all of this stuff'… And for the most part you're right. You should know weapon cashes, power supply ports, catapult release points. But that's not the main point of this. The main goal of this room is teamwork, knowing what your partner is doing and where they are doing it along with what they have to do it with." Stepping over to the far end of the room the purple haired women pressed a button causing a section of wall to open up revealing several cases and while most of them were empty two of them contained sets of body armor themed in the colors of Unit's one and zero.

"What are we supposed to do with those?" Shinji asked as he glanced around the room and back to the suits.

"It's simple really, when we run drills in this room you will put these suits on, then go to the catapult access point I assign you for the drill where you will take a small power cord and attach it to the back of your suits to simulate your Eva's power cord. And then once I give the signal you will leave the catapult and begin your assault on the target using the mock weapons that are contained in the various cashes throughout the mockup."

"What about me?" Ranma asked as she looked around, "I haven't even synced with an Eva yet."

"Yoiko, I'm glad you asked." Misato stated with a smile, "Since we have only two Eva's, when we run drills we will be rotating one of you three out. However since you have an amazing skill set I won't be allowing you to sit out around like I would Shinji or Rei. Instead we will be utilizing those skills of yours in the simulation with you as the angel… Now any questions?" After looking around to make sure that there weren't any purple haired woman added, "Good, suit up and when you are ready I will tell you where to go."

Seeing Shinji's face color in embarrassment as he nervously tugged at his shirt Misato commented, "While I'm sure that Rei and Yoiko might not mind watching you strip if you step into the case with your eva suit in it a privacy screen will come down and you can change in there." Turing her attention to Yoiko she said, "For training purposes we have a duplicate suit for training purposes like the one in the case for you, it should be in the last compartment on the left."

"Do I have too?" Ranma nearly whined not really wanting to wear either the suit in the case or the one in the compartment, "I'm going to look like some power ranger reject."

"I'm sure you'll look fine…" After pausing for a minute for the dated referance to register Misato added, "Oh that reminds me, while we do have spares of that suit, you are to keep that one with you at all times outside of Nerv."

Stepping out of her compartment fully dressed in her Eva's orange likeness Rei spoke up and asked, "I am ready Misato."

"Good Rei, report to catapult 9 and await further instructions." Calling out the Shinji she added, "And Shinji you go to Catapult 2..." Turning her attention the diminutive redhead in front of her Misato added, "As for you, when I start the simulation you get your choice of where to begin, however for the purpose of this exercise your final objective is to incapacitate both evas, mostly because I want to keep property damage down and the Goefront mock up beneath us is incomplete at the moment."

12321

Freely kicking her legs over the side of one of the more medium sized buildings Ranma withheld a yawn. So far they had ran about 20 something drills and the novelty of her sparring with Rei and Shinji was starting to get repetitive. Sure she had mixed things up. The first several sorties had led to her slowly dodging around the defenders until she managed to trip them up with their own power cables. Then in the spirit of mixing things up she had started to divide her focus between the two, leading them about until they would think that they would have her only for her to move out of the way at the last moment causing them to take each other out with friendly fire.

That too had started to get rather repetitive, so once she was done teasing them with her agility she decided to do a bit of training for herself by just standing still and putting up a ki shield to deflect the incoming paint projectiles. However due to the slow speed in which the paint-balls came at her the impacts were negligible and were not really helping her with her own training. It wasn't that she minded helping the others, it was just that she had just gotten her cast off and was feeling more than a little stir crazy as she waited to begin her own rehab.

Hopping down off of the building while testing her stability Ranma called out, "Hey Misato? How many more drills are we going to do?"

Looking down to the floor from the control both Misato replied, "Be with you in a sec Yoiko…" Flipping over a switch to change from the general intercom to the private channel that Rei and Shinji were sharing with her the woman stated, "Alright guys, I think Yoiko is starting to get a bit antsy so this is going to be our last drill of the day." Not hearing anything from either of her two charges Misato added, "Come on guy's lets try to win at least one today. All you need to do is hit her once, it's easy…"

"Misato…" Shinji sighed in exasperation, "We've been trying to hit her, she's just too good…"

"Yoiko is proving to be a most formidable foe." Rei stated in a near monotone that to the elder woman sounded suspiciously like annoyance.

Hoping to raise their spirits Misato stated, "Look guy's, I'm on your side here, this room isn't just here to set me apart from all of you. It also controls all of little Little Tokyo-3's defenses and that means that I can support you guy's…" Not receiving anything other than a single dejected sigh from the teams male counterpart she added, "Alright guy's I got a plan, just wait to engage the target until I tell you to."

12321

"Come on Misato… What's taking so long?" Ranma called out impatiently.

"Yeesh, I told you it'd be a minute Yoiko…" Pausing to input a few commands into the terminal in front of her Misato added, "We're just about ready now…"

Rolling her eyes Ranma confidently offered, "Look it's not like they are going to defeat me anyway, I mean sure learning how to operate as a team out there is good but this is just…" Trailing off as a siren started sounding off in the background the redhead asked, "Do we need to go somewhere or something?"

Smirking as she entered one last command Nerv's chief tactical officer switched back to the other comm channel and stated, "Alright, guy's this is it, move in on my signal."

12321

"Well I guess that answers that." Ranma stated dryly as she noticed several new additions to the mock city, most of which were in the form of scaled down weapons and vehicles. Fortunately for the redhead Misato had already called upon a few of the scaled down defenses to assist the others and was not caught off guard as hundreds of paint-balls were launched at her. Taking a moment to idly buff her nails against her armor before putting out her shield she called out, "Is that all you got?"

From her position in the booth Misato smirked, true she knew that the redheads shield would most likely be more than enough to deflect the countless incoming projectiles of the mock cities defenses but she also knew that the technique was rather new and that the redhead had not yet mastered it so it was her hope that the girl would allow herself to be distracted.

121

Lazily unleashing her shield to block the countless incoming projectiles that were in the shape of small little balls of paint Ranma called out, "Come on? Is this all ya got?… Too easy…"

12321

"Okay guy's, you're going to have to move fast with this one. Both of you are going to be arming yourselves with the mock special positron laser rifles to engage Yoiko after I detonate the mock N2 mines."

"Wait… Misato? N2 mines?" Shinji exclaimed out of concern.

"Oh relax…" Misato soothed, "I said this mock up had everything that Tokyo-3 has didn't I? Besides you are really going to like this part, Go ahead and retrieve the weapons, I'm just about ready."

12321

Snorting to herself in amusement as she watched small droplets of splattered paint run down her shield Ranma taunted, "Come on now… I've seen little old ladies with better aim…"

Smirking as she entered the last command and the automated mock N2 delivery system came online Misato opened the PA and fired back, "Oh, I've just gotten started Yoiko…"

"Yeah… Well…" Ranma started only to trail off when she noticed several 8 inch canisters heading towards her. At first glance she dismissed the incoming projectiles but after noting a few more coming at her she started to get suspicious. The small paint balls she knew she could handle but the new unknown would be iffy as she really hadn't mastered the technique well enough for it to withstand that much force and while the new projectiles moved slower the redhead had her own suspicions about the end result, so with that in mind she immediately began weaving around buildings.

12321

"Okay guy's move out to sections 2 and 5 and set up, I'll be leading Yoiko to you."

121

Ranma grinned, she was fully aware that she was being herded into a position and that with the incoming canisters that she now recognized as some kind of paint grenade she would be hard pressed to alter her course. It didn't really matter though as so far her teammates had not been able to offer anything remotely close to a challenge leaving her secure with the knowledge that she would be able to handle what ever trap that was waiting her.

12321

"I am in position Misato." Rei stated over the comm.

"Me too…" Shinji huffed as he knelt down while catching his breath.

"Good, she's heading your way get ready." Misato offered while tracking the redheads movements down below.

12321

"Okay… I can see Shinji's shadow up ahead… So whatever they are going to do it's going to be any minute now… Can't really do anything but walk into it…" Ranma muttered to herself as she slid behind another building. Knowing that she only had a brief moment before the next canister hit and unleashed a wide spray of green paint the redhead prepared herself to move out again.

121

"Okay guy's on your toes, firing the last volley now, you're only going to get one shot so make it count." Misato ordered as she watched the scene below.

121

While crouching behind one of the smaller buildings waiting for Yoiko to step into view Rei briefly reflected on the redhead and her orders. She had been having difficulties interpreting them and the commander had not been available for her to ask for clarification. Since the last angel battle the blue haired girl had been confused, the redhead seemed like a valuable asset, one whom not only could fight an angel head on without an Eva but also was capable of assisting in the making of tactical plans.

Yet despite that she was still supposed to spy on the other girl and report any suspicious behavior to the commander. The problem with her orders though was that Yoiko had not done anything suspicious and thus leaving her with nothing to report to the commander. At times she considered the possibility that the other girl could be sneaking out at night or a sleeper agent but Rei was slowly ruling that out as it just didn't seem likely, possible, but not likely.

So with Yoiko not doing anything suspicious Rei was beginning to consider another option, one in which the commander had thought that she could use a little companionship so he had ordered her to befriend Yoiko while under the guise of spying on her. However unlikely it was that the commander would order her to do something with that specific goal in mind Rei still couldn't discount it as she knew that the commander had his reasons and would feel no need to disclose his reasoning to her.

"This is very complicated, and confusing…" the red-eyed girl thought to herself, "_The commander is aware of what I am… So why would he order me to do such things when it serves no real purpose… Yet Yoiko has not yet proven to be untrustworthy… Perhaps I am just not observant enough…"_

Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye Rei pushed past her current thoughts and refocused on the task at hand. Seeing her target step into view she adjusted her aim and squeezed the trigger.

121

"CRITICAL HIT.. TARGET INCAPACITATED…"

Pausing her movements to glance up at the booth Ranma immediately objected, "What do you mean? Nothing hit me."

Shinji not yet knowing if the drill was finished stood up and took his shot.

"TARGET'S CORE HAS BEEN PIERCED, TARGET DESTROYED…" Misato stated smugly down at the confused redhead before explaining, "Those two weapons that Rei and Shinji have aren't paintball guns. Those two guns are equipped with MILES gear to simulate Nerv's positron laser rifle and not the standard pallet weapons."

"MILES?" Ranma asked in confusion.

"Think of it as laser tag, we use the paint weapons for solid projectiles and Miles for the non-standard ones, oh and the paint grenades simulate N2 mines, I probably should have briefed you before hand but I think that you not knowing initially offered you more of a challenge." Misato commented offhandedly before finishing with, "Good job everyone, go get changed and report back to the briefing room so we can go over the drills before we head home for the day." Smiling mischievously as she gazed down at the paint covered cityscape beneath her the purple haired woman stifled a giggle before entering one last command into the system. Whistling innocently as she then turned and left the booth Misato was almost able to contain herself as she heard the automated voice of the computer in the booth relay, "Warning city sanitization imininent all personnel are to exit simulation, 30 seconds remaining."

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The next morning Tokyo-3 safe house

12321

In a nondescript apartment complex Genma Saotome stood rigidly as he waited. For what he wasn't sure dozens of different scenarios had been put into place within his own mind about what was going to happen.

"_I have to remain strong, I cannot fail the boy… Not this time. Their control might not let me run from them, but I broke out of their influence once… They are not infallible… I must keep my mind my own, It's the only chance… If only I could move, just a twitch… Something to let me know that I'm in control…"_

Sadly for the aged panda despite his best efforts and fierce determination he remained locked in place, statuesque in the background of an otherwise empty hallway inside a vacant building. He tried to take comfort in the fact that his meddling with his own kin had went by unnoticed by the others but with the complete lack of control he was facing the possibilities were starting to look bleak if only he could growl out in defiance or better yet strike out with his paw and smite his tormentor before whatever plan they were following went into fruition.

"Genma…"

A small flicker of his claw went by unnoticed as the senior Saotome waited for further instruction as he mentally glared at the person whom had opened the door.

"Come in, and stand in front of my desk. I have many questions for you to answer."

Obediently, without pause he stepped forward, unable to flinch in foreboding as the door closed ominously.

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Meanwhile at the Katsuragi Apartment

121

"Where's Yoiko?" Misato asked with a yawn as she stumbled into the kitchen and retrieved a beer from the fridge, "She's not still mad about yesterday is she?"

"She is out training on the roof." Rei replied as she gathered up her empty plate and left the table.

Shaking his head negatively Shinji grumbled, "I don't think so… What was the idea anyway, you got us all soaking wet."

Temporarily ignoring Shinji to answer Rei Misato asked, "Already…" After popping the tab on her beer and slamming it, forgoing her usual cry of happiness, the woman added "Didn't Ritsuko tell her that she needed to ease into her rehab?"

Shrugging as he tried not to stare at his scantily clad guardian Shinji replied, "She said she needed to make up for time lost."

"She still shouldn't be out there, sure it's healed but she could re-injure it if she doesn't take things easy." Misato countered.

"Come on Misato…" Ranma interjected as she walked into the room, "If I didn't train like I do I wouldn't be able to do half the things…"

"Yeah… Yeah…" Misato fired back cutting the teen off, "I know, your body needs to be kept to a certain standard."

"But it does…" The redhead huffed back in mild annoyance, "An angel could attack at anytime, I need to be ready."

Sighing at the tiring argument of her attempting to get the redhead to slow down a bit the purple haired woman noticed her male charge shuffling his eyes about uncomfortably. Temporarily sidetracked by the odd behavior she tried to figure out what was wrong when she took notice of Yoiko's attire of sports bra and tight workout shorts and her own outfit consisting of loose short shorts and a comfortable white camisole that she used for sleeping Misato suddenly grinned and teased, "See something you like Shinji?"

"Huh.. yes … No …" Shinji floundered out.

Smiling lightly Misato motioned over to the redhead and asked, "Look at what you've done, you're upsetting Shinji by disagreeing with me…" Not giving Yoiko a chance to respond the taller woman embraced the younger girl and replied over her shoulder, "Don't worry Shinji, we won't fight anymore."

Had he not been mentally preoccupied with the image of Misato tenderly embracing a slightly sweaty Yoiko Shinji might have been able to counter a, 'yeah right," As it seemed that Yoiko's training regime was a constant source of mild arguing.

Flushed because of the way she was being held Ranma mentally warred with the idea of pulling away. True the woman could be irritating with her constant insistence of taking things easy but it wasn't a bad thing. The near constant harping about her needing to be more careful felt uplifting to her in a way that filled her with a steady warmth that she hadn't even been aware that she needed before.

Seeing the flushed look increase on Shinji's face Misato mentally cheered in triumph and was about to make another comment before the doorbell rang and reminded her of the upcoming day's events. Pulling away from her redheaded charge she suggested, "Shinji could you go get the door, Yoiko here needs to get ready for school." Pausing as she guided the girl out of the room she added, "Oh don't forget, parent teacher conferences are today so I'll be dropping by the school. Afterwards Yoiko needs to report to Nerv for a sync test."

Snapping back to herself before she could be caught staring at the purple haired beauty Ranma reluctantly moved off to get ready for school, coincidentally having forgotten to ask for a note to get her out of gym class as today would be her first day actually dressing for the class.

123454321

A little later on the way to school

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"Stupid perverts…" Ranma muttered to herself as she overhead bits and pieces of the questions Shinji's two friends were asking him from her position behind the group.

"Do you not like our classmates?" Rei asked having overheard the redheads grumblings. "Can you not just ignore them if they bother you?"

Sighing because she knew she wouldn't be able to actually say what was bothering her Ranma replied, "Naw… It's not that, everybody should have friends… Shinji needs a few guys to hang out with… even if they are perverts…"

"I do not understand?" Rei asked in confusion as to what was bothering the other girl.

"_I don't even know how to explain this…" _Ranma thought, _"I can't just tell her that while I don't really like overhearing some of the comments that Toji and Kensuke say to Shinji __it's not what's bothering me… Fact is the two perverts remind me of Hiroshi and Diasuke with some of the things they would say to me… We weren't all that close but being able to just hang out with a couple of normal guys was sort of relaxing… Wish I knew what happened to them."_ Turning her attention back to Rei whom was still awaiting an answer Ranma tried, "Having friends is a good thing, even if they are a couple of perverts. Seeing Shinji with those guys just sort of reminds me of some of my old friends I guess…"

After mulling over the redheads answer for a moment Rei asked, "So you find Shinji's friends annoying? But you otherwise do not mind Shinji being friends with them because they remind you of your old friends?"

"Yeah pretty much." Ranma commented.

"You are lonely?" Rei asked in a way that sounded more like a statement of fact before adding, "Am I your friend?"

Pausing to consider her answer briefly Ranma awkwardly conceded, "Of course you are Rei, Shinji too. It's just… Well Shinji has the two perverts, you have Hikari… I guess I just miss having a friend that's normal…" Shaking her head at the way the last part came out she tried to clarify with, "Not that you and Shinji aren't normal but… Well sometimes it's good to have a friend that's not really involved in the same things… Sort of helps to keep things in perspective I guess…"

Not really understanding what the redhead meant Rei offered, "If you wish I will endeavor to share Hikari with you so that you have a normal friend."

"Uhmm… Thanks Rei…"

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Later at Nerv

12321

"Are you okay? You seem preoccupied?" Misato asked as she spared Yoiko a concerned look.

"I'm fine, just nervous I guess." Ranma lied in return not wanting or even knowing if she would be able to talk to Misato about what was actually bothering her.

"You sure?"

"_No, but it's not like I can tell you how weirded out I am by having to change in the girls locker room for gym and acting like it's a normal thing while I mentally twist myself into knots."_

"Well okay I guess." Misato added after a moment of silence, "It's time for your snyc test now, but if you want to talk about it later my doors always open for you."

12321

Nerv control booth

"So did she sync with the Eva?" Misato asked breaking the silence that had befallen the booth.

"Yes and no…" Ritsuko offered in return while she stared down in confusion at the readings before her. "The Eva activated but these readings are all over the place." pointing at several squiggly lines she added, "I'm not sure what this means though, this line is supposed to represent Yoiko's ego but it's blurred, then there's this phantom ego that's interfering with the test… I really don't know what to make of this… It almost looks like feedback but it shouldn't be given how low the sync level is… Maya try to reset the nerve connections to see if that takes care of the interference."

"So… That means?" Misato drawled out not unsurely.

"It's low, but high enough that she should be able to pilot the Eva. Until we can figure out these readings I can't really say for certain what, if any affect these other readings are going to have on her performance." Shaking her head as the readings continued to offer sporadic results the blond added, "This isn't working, we're going to have to run a full diagnostic… Maya have Unit 0 prepped, We'll have Yoiko try to sync with that one, That way we can at least try to rule out some of the potential issues."

12321

Sitting quietly in the entry plug of Unit one Ranma tried to not squirm uncomfortably while she focused on clearing her mind. Unfortunately the taste of blood in the LCL combined with the feeling of being compressed that seemed to get worse the longer she sat inside the eva were making it difficult. Finally unable to take it any longer she spoke up, "Are you sure everything is okay? I'm starting to feel like I'm slowly being crushed… And it's starting to get a little uncomfortable."

Tearing her gaze away from the readings Ritsuko scoffed in an annoyed tone, "You're being crushed? That's not possible."

"Well not physically…" Ranma muttered in response, "It's sort of like I'm constantly being hit on all sides by a very weak but constant ki blast… At first it wasn't that bad but the longer I'm in here the stronger it feels…"

"Interesting…" Ritsuko commented back as she switched screens to look at the Eva's individual readings. "Maya, cut power and eject the entry plug."

"Doctor?" Maya questioned.

"I think I know what is wrong… Well partiality…" Ritsuko answered, "Yoiko's special abilities are interfering with the Eva's functions on a small scale, with practice she should be able to increase her sync rate but due to background interference she will be handicapped by her own abilities."

"Meaning?" Misato demanded.

"Well basically, I should be able to filter out some interference but Yoiko will probably always have a lower snyc ratio than Rei and Shinji. We just don't know enough about the Eva's for me to give you a better answer."

12321

Later that evening

12321

"What is the status of the fourth child?"

"She managed to get a snyc ratio of 23 percent before we finally pulled her out. That's enough for her to be able to pilot but not enough to really consider using her over Shinji. I postponed the activation test for Unit 00 for the moment to give me a chance to go through all the data and try to figure out a way to minimize the feedback before we try again."

"This feedback, do you know the cause?"

"Well…" Ritsuko started off slowly, "This is only a theory at the moment but I believe that it has to do with Unit 01's AT field, at least partiality. It's sort of like trying to fit a basketball into a baseball. On a scale proportionally the fourth child's own soul and AT field is larger than that of Unit ones. In turn I believe this to be responsible for the crushing feeling that she claimed to be experiencing, as for the Ego readings, I'm really not sure, it could be that Unit one was passively rejecting her but short of the unit actually going berserk I can't really be sure."

"Is there a way to be sure?" Gendo asked hiding his annoyance behind his steepled hands.

"Well, if we had another Eva and access to the fourth's mothers' soul then I could narrow some of the potential issues out but as things are I'm not sure how long it will take me to figure this out."

"I see. You mentioned before that you believed the fourth's soul and AT field to be more potent than that of Unit ones."

Blinking at the impassive implication of where she was beginning to suspect the conversation going to Ritsuko nodded and replied, "Yes, proportionally it is as Yui Ikari had none of the advanced training or abilities that Yoiko exhibits and given that the Eva itself acts as a sort of lens for the human soul trapped within then…"

"Just how much more powerful are we talking about here doctor?" Gendo asked.

"Well, due to the restrictions and safety measures we take to keep the Eva's under control then I would say double at the least but no more powerful than a magnitude of 5 and that's only if we could find a pilot for the unit, given the difficulties with Unit 00 I don't think cloning would work in this case and she doesn't have any offspring so unless we can find someone whom she shares a strong emotional bond with extracting her soul into a Eva just would not be feasible at this time."

"I see… Dismissed doctor."

"Commander…" Ritsuko acknowledged with a nod before turning around and leaving the room.

Waiting for the door to close Fuyutsuki stepped out of the shadows and asked, "Surely you are not considering what I think you are?"

"Not at the moment, but it does not hurt to explore all possible options available to us. Besides this information alone could work to our advantage in getting Unit 3 released to us."

"Any word on Unit 02?"

"It is being prepped for transport and will be on its way by the end of the week." Gendo replied as he leaned back in his seat, "Is there any progress with the files from the Ministry of Intelligence?"

"We have the possible locations narrowed down to 4 different locations, I have already sent out teams to investigate."

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A few days later early morning Katsuragi residence

121

"Do I have to?"

"Yep."

"Can't Shinji or Rei go instead?"

"Nope."

"Why not?" Ranma pouted as she glared menacingly into her closet at a plastic covered uniform.

"Because, Yoiko." Misato started as she went into the girls closet, "Rei and Shinji aren't super powered teenagers that have managed to gain the interest of every single defense firm and government agency on the planet." Taking a brief moment to pick up the top photo from a large pile of photo's that she knew the girl had confiscated she added, "That's not to mention your civilian fan base…" Pulling the plastic covered uniform out of the closet she continued, "We need you to show your allegiance with Nerv in defense of the planet. Honestly I went over this last night with you in the furo…"

"But…" Ranma tried to object not wanting to tell the woman that she had been too distracted by the other woman's presence and hadn't really heard anything that she had said.

"I know you'd fight the angels whether or not you were with Nerv but we need you to do this, if the other agencies see you standing by us then that can translate into more funding but. It also shows that we are capable of working together which could possibly help us win over some new political allies…" Seeing the redhead deflate as she held out the skirted uniform Misato added, "It's win-win for everyone, we get more allies and funding and our chances of stopping third impact increases."

Sighing as she took the dress uniform from the woman Ranma countered, "Fine, I'll go… But do I have to wear the heels?"

1234321

"So where are we going again?" Ranma asked as she hopped up into the transport.

"Told you already Yoiko, we're going to old Tokyo. There's a rival project called Jet Alone that's holding a demonstration today." Misato explained.

"So we're going to get more help with the angels then?"

"Hardly…" Ritsuko scoffed, "Jet Alone is a waste of the scrap used to build it."

Taken slightly aback by the venom in the woman's words the redhead stated, "If it can help with the angels why is it a waste?"

"Because it wouldn't last a minute against an Angel, probably less than that if we pitted you against it…" Ritsuko contemplated with a small gleam in her eye at the possibility of getting Yoiko to destroy the Robot.

"Well it doesn't have to fight to help does it…?" Seeing the incredulous stares directed at her Ranma hastily added, "Well you guy's are always saying that only an Eva can fight an Angel but I'm here, then there's that laser cannon you used for the last one and those N2 mines, what's to say that there isn't a use for it somewhere." Spotting the still mostly intact form of the 5th Angel as the transport took off she continued, "If nothing else it could help with disposing of the dead Angels… Still don't understand why you don't have the Eva's helping with that, it looks like it would be good training."

"What, do I have something on my face…?" Ranma stated nervously as she shifted in her seat from the intense stares that she was receiving from the two older women.

"No…" Ritsuko started.

"Why haven't we thought of that?" Misato interrupted, "It would be a good training aid and should alleviate the cost of disposing of the Angels, that's a really good idea Yoiko."

"Well there would still be some logistics to work out with the disposal, plus there is a gore factor involved but we should still be able to come out ahead of the current methods." Ritsuko commented while she made a few notes on the idea.

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"_This is so boring…"_ Ranma muttered to herself as she fidgeted slightly in her seat while trying to ignore the scent of food drifting over from the other tables. Unable to contain herself any more as her stomach grumbled loudly in protest to what her nose was sensing she asked, "How come the other tables get food and all we got is a few bottles of already opened wine?"

Shrugging as she chewed on the last remains of a pocky stick that she had fished out of her pocket Misato offered, "It's probably a snub cause we work for Nerv."

Grumbling as she stood up at the injustice of it all Ranma replied, "Well snub or not I'm hungry, I'll be back in a few."

"Just make sure you don't wander off too far, and don't forget your case. Even if you are staying in the same general area as it I want it on your person at all times." Shooting the redhead one last glance she added, "And if it's not too much trouble bring something back for me…"

"Sure Misato… Ritsuko want anything?"

"I'm fine." the blond doctor replied as she looked over the small information pamphlet she had been handed.

"Okay." Ranma chirped back as she began to scan the various tables. Spotting a table near the back that looked ripe for the picking she altered her course and pasted a bright happy smile on her face.

121

"So what brings our exalted honored guest from Nerv to this lowly table?"

Not having expected such a cold reception from the elderly man sitting alone at the table Ranma decided to up the old Saotome charm a few notches when a female voice piped in from behind her.

"Seto-san, that's no way to greet our honored fellow guests, especially this young lady."

"Bah… This is just some flunky Sergeant from Nerv security, though she seems a bit young."

"Sergeant?" Ranma repeated to herself before she remembered that Misato had told her the Rank was honorary and just a means to elevate her above her fellow pilots as a means to placate the JSSDF and the UN.

"You really need to get those eyes of yours checked out. This is no mere flunky as you so gently put. This young lady is none other than Yoiko Saotome, the rumored last Grandmaster, why this young girl was directly responsible for the defeat of the first two Angels."

"You sure?" the man stated quizenly as he took out a pair of reading glasses to place them on.

"Oh yes, I'm sure." the woman stated firmly as she stepped around Ranma bringing herself into view.

Now wearing his glasses the man squinted a little while looking the redhead over and conceded, "I suppose you're right, though I thought she would be a bit taller."

Frowning at the slight against her height Ranma was just about to let her mouth run free when the woman interrupted again.

"Behave yourself Seto-san, this young lady is an honored guest." Having sufficiently chastised the old man at the table the woman turned to the young Saotome and continued, "Forgive me for Seto-sans rudeness, Kodachi Takahashi at your service."

Had she been able to Ranma would have recoiled in shock upon realizing whom the woman was as there was no real trace left of the crazed gymnast that she remembered from what was to her only a few months ago. But it was the same person, she could see it now. The body looked different, taller and more filled out, with what little baby fat the woman had had in her youth replaced with the refined features of a woman in her early mid-thirties. Then there was the eyes, the craziness of her youth seemed to be a shadow of the past replaced by something that hinted at a sadness that the woman kept buried within.

She instantly was filled with a thousand questions about what happened to everyone, why she was there, but her mouth refused to cooperate. Instead much to her dismay she found herself bowing slightly and replying, "It's a pleasure to meet you Takahashi-san."

"Oh the pleasure is mine." Kodachi replied with a smile that instantly fueled Ranma with more curiosity. "So you never answered my esteemed colleagues question. What brings such a prestigious guest to the outer fringes of this little banquet?"

"Well…" Ranma started only to be cut off by a loud protest from her stomach causing her to unconsciously flush in embarrassment.

"Ah I see…" Kodachi smiled, "The hungers of youth, I'm sure Seto-San wouldn't mind you joining him for a bit…" Leaning over to whisper conspiringly into the younger girls ear she continued, "Despite his gruff demeanor he's actually quite the softy when it comes to pretty young girls, why I bet you could have him wrapped around your little finger with nothing but a wink and a smile. You must drive all the boy's crazy… a little heartbreaker like you?"

Mentally shuddering at the suggestion the redhead chose to immediately start cramming food into her mouth in the hopes of preventing herself from saying something in response.

"So Saotome-san…" Kodachi began once Ranma had begun to help herself to the food, "What do you think of this little project. After all you are among the top few on the front lines and should this project take off as it should it will be you among those most affected by it."

"Think it's a good idea…" Ranma mumbled through bites of food before catching herself and finishing, "The other pilots…" Cutting herself off as she managed to withhold herself from talking about Rei and Shinji and how she thought that they didn't belong out there she went on to say instead, "If this thing can help out I'm all for it. I mean these angels are serious so it really isn't the time for bickering about who can do what, we need to work together on this… I'm not invincible… well not yet anyway…"

"I see… So the rumors were right? That you were still recovering from injuries during the last Angel attack?"

Caught in the middle of chewing a rather tough section of what she hoped was beef Ranma offered a nod of acknowledgement rather that speaking.

Nodding to herself as she considered everything she had heard from the young redhead Kodachi almost hesitantly started, "Forgive me for intruding. But there is something I must know." Seeing that she had the girls attention she pushed on and asked, "You wouldn't by chance be related to a Ranma Saotome from Nerima would you? I know that they haven't mentioned anything in the press releases about your parents but… See… He was an old friend of mine and… Well… I had thought that he had perished on the day of second impact… I lost a lot… of… Friends… that day and… I suppose that I'd just like to know that one of them made it out okay… Normally I wouldn't ask such a question but you do share a remarkable resemblance to someone else of my acquaintance."

Chewing her food slowly as she considered her former self-appointed fiancée Ranma tried to figure out if the woman really wanted an answer or was just simply playing on some sort of script. Originally she had thought that the woman was aware of whom she really was but after listening to her she was starting to have her doubts. And if it turned out that the woman didn't actually know who she really was then Ranma knew her words were only going to hurt her. Shamefully she bowed her head hoping to hide the hidden guilt that she knew wasn't going to show through and commented knowing that even if she had wanted to she would be incapable of telling the truth, "Ranma Saotome was my father… But he's gone now, both of my parents are. I'm not sure what happened or how it happened… I'm sorry…"

"There you are." Misato exclaimed as she came up behind the redhead, "They are going to be starting soon so Ritsuko sent me to get you, said something about presenting a unified front or something like that."

Looking back over to Kodachi Ranma smiled slightly and offered, "It was nice to meet you Takahashi-San, This is Misato Katsuragi, my…" Pausing because of how childish it seemed to admit what she was about to say the redhead reluctantly added, "My Guardian…"

"Pleasure, I'm sure…" Kodachi replied hauntily before continuing with a glance at the podium on the stage, "But your guardian is correct it does look like they are going to be starting soon so you best get going."

12321

"Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending this exhibition by Nippon Heavy Industry Solidarity. You will be observing the official demonstration from the control room. Are there any questions? "Ranma heard as she followed Misato back to their table while successfully managing to not blatantly examine the older woman's gait as she strutted along.

"Yes." Ritsuko called out as she stood up.

"Ah, the famous Dr. Akagi Ritsuko! I am very glad to see that you and your colleagues could join us today." The man replied snidely from his position behind the podium.

"May I ask a question?" Ritsuko fired off almost immediately.

"Certainly, by all means go ahead."

"According to the explanation the unit is equipped with an internal Nuclear Reactor? "

"Yes. With it's reactor the Unit is able to operate for 150 consecutive days." The man replied confidently.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous? A Nuclear reactor in a land based weapon designed to fight the enemy hand to hand?" Ritsuko scoffed.

"It's more useful than a weapon which lasts less than 5 minutes without its power cord or even a girl who seems to spend most of her time in traction." The man fired back smugly.

"But there would be problems with remote-control in an emergency situation."

"Not only is our system is more humane, but it doesn't cause mental illness in pilots simply from the stress." The man defended before looking down at Ranma and adding, "It also has the benefit of not sending out little girls to do a mans work."

"HEY… WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" Ranma objected loudly as she lurched back to her feet and shot the man an angry glare and adding, "I was all for your little tin can… This no time for bickering… Angels are out there and they could attack at anytime and instead of even trying to work together on this you're bickering like little kids over who gets to play with what…"

"Now calm down miss." The man chided, "No reason to get excited…" turning his attention to the rest of the audience he added, "Jet alone takes the human element out of the equation leaving us free of our dependence on loudmouthed hormonal little girls."

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT YOIKO LIKE THAT!" Misato exploded as she surged to her feet to join the others.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN…" Kodachi called out loudly as she approached the stage, "You must forgive Mr. Yamoto for his trespass, he is known to get a bit opinionated when it comes to the project." Shooting the man a glare that sent him scurrying back and out of the way she continued, "I think in the interest of moving things along that perhaps we should just move on to the demonstration. I believe a ten minute break is in order and then afterwards if everyone would kindly meet back in the control room we can get the demonstration underway and afterwards we can answer any questions you might have."

1234321

Standing with her hands folded in front of herself with her ever present briefcase at her side Ranma found herself wishing that she had taken the time to develop a technique that shot lasers out of her eyes so she could burn that asinine look off of his face. As it was the only thing keeping her from taking off her shoe and beating him with it was the steady comforting hand of Misato as the older woman seemed to know that she was still stewing over the way she had been spoken about. She knew she was over reacting on the issue but her hormones were working against her at the moment and consequently knew that her patience and understanding would be lacking for a few days.

"Hey… There's the woman from earlier…" Misato stated as she watched the woman approach the man from the podium.

"That's Kodachi Takahashi, she's one of the main financial backers for Jet Alone." Ritsuko stated with a glance, "It's was sort of a surprise to see her jump in like she did though as she usually prefers to shy away from making any public appearances."

"She seemed pretty nice." Misato countered before directing her attention to the redhead to ask, "What did you think Yoiko? You were sitting with her earlier."

Ranma half shrugged at the question as her focus was currently on trying to make out what the now older woman was saying to the jerky Mr. Yamoto. From her position though the only thing she could really get from them was that the conversation was rather animated and that was just mostly from the glare and gestures that she could see coming from Mr Yamoto. Sighing as she gave up, unable to overhear from her vantage point with all of the background noise she stated diplomatically, "She seemed okay, she really didn't say much she pretty much just asked me about my parents…"

"Ladies and gentlemen if you would all direct your eyes to the observation window the trial activation and test run of Jet Alone will be starting within the minute." Kodachi announced as she stepped away from the program director pausing only enough time for the director to issue the activation command to his staff the woman continued, "Now you will hear commands and status reports from the technicians in the room please pay them no mind. Let me assure you that there is nothing to be concerned about."

"Release all engines…"

"As you can see they will be giving a little play by play for the demonstration, this is no reflection on Jet Alones abilities as all of its possible movements are stored within the onboard computer system."

"Start walking."

"Move left leg."

"A computer system programmed to account for any conceivable possibility. So once again while the technicians are issuing commands, the commands themselves are nothing more than the Standard Operating Procedure meant solely for the staff so they can double check what Jet Alone is doing versus what it is actually supposed to be doing."

121

"So it can walk… Yay…" Misato offered to her redheaded companion with a sarcastic whisper.

Nodding more to herself than to the older woman Ranma silently agreed with the sediment. Now that she was seeing the thing in action she was starting to agree with Ritsuko's view on the robot as the glorified tin can while monstrous in size did not seem nearly as nimble as a Evangelion.

121

"Something's wrong…"

"Reactor pressure is increasing…" Another technician shouted in alarm.

"Ladies and gentlemen if you would remain calm I am sure the staff here has everything under control." Kodachi offered in assurance over the increasing volume of worried whispers from the spectators in the control room.

"Open the release valve… Pump in…"

"Negative… Pumps not responding…" A tech cut in.

'EMERGANCY STOP… CUT THE POWER…" Mr. Yamoto shouted over the choas as the giant robot continued its collision course with the control room.

"Negative… It's not accepting the commands…" the tech from before franticly stated before looking out of the control rooms window and shouting, "It's out of control and coming right for us…"

"EVERYONE REMAIN CALM, GO TO THE EMERGENCY EXITS." Kodachi tried as the room erupted in chaos.

Knowing that while she would be able to knock a hole in the wall to escape from being crushed her friends were pretty much stuck. With that thought in mind moments before the robots foot came crashing down through the ceiling Ranma had managed to push both Ritsuko and Misato down into a corner where she could at least shield the two from harm.

121

Misato blinked slowly, one minute she had been standing and then the next she was huddled into a corner peering up into Yoiko's eyes as she huddled over her like a mother protecting her young.

"I think we can get up now." Ritsuko stated dryly after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Right… Sorry…" Ranma stated awkwardly as she forced her eyes to break contact with Misato's while stepping back to offer both women a hand up.

Once on her feet and after checking to make sure the younger girl whom had so selflessly shielded her from harm was okay Misato walked right up to Mr. Yamoto and asked, "What's the status?"

"This can't be happening, the computer was given programming to account for all possible emergencies…"

"Get a grip, it's happening, like it or not…" Misato chided before adding, "What of the reactor?"

"We can't shut it down… Unless it shuts down on its own then…"

"What are the odds on that happening."

"It would be a miracle." Kodachi stated sadly as she approached, "The odds on a self stop are around the .000002 percent mark. Meaning it's not going to happen, I suggest that all non essential personnel evacuate the area while there is still time."

"Is there a way to shut it down?" Misato asked.

"We've tried every possible way to shut it down."

"Surely there is another way?" Kodachi questioned in return

Shaking his head the man replied, "The only possible way to stop it now would be for someone to go in and manually enter the commands into the onboard computer."

"Great…" Misato chimed sarcastically, "Looks like there is a way to stop it after all."

"No you don't understand…" The man warned, "You'd have to catch up to it first, then get inside and after that you'd have to deal with the extreme heat from the reactors along with massive amounts of radiation… That's not to mention that once you make it past all of that you still have to enter the password into the system and as of right now I'm not authorized to give you that…"

"Well you better get me authorization then." Misato pushed as she folded her arms across her chest.

Kodachi after briefly shooting a look over to Yoiko and then to Misato stated, "I think I might be able to assist in greasing the wheels, politically of course. However seeing that the Jet Alone robot is in danger of a meltdown it perhaps it would be best if I did so from the comfort of my personal transport. Perhaps it would be wise for you and your Nerv companions to do the same while the clearance issue is sorted out."

Glancing back where Yoiko was standing with Ritsuko Misato agreed, "Perhaps you are right."

1234321

20 minutes later

12321

"So what are we doing again?" Ranma asked as she watched the ground disappear beneath the transport as it sped along to Tokyo 3, "And aren't we going the wrong way? That Jet Jaguar guy is heading the other way."

"It's Jet Alone Yoiko…" Ritsuko chided after a slight pause after failing to place the reference.

Cutting in where her friend left off Misato added, "And we are heading back to Tokyo 3 because I want to be ready with an eva on stand by and not be sitting around waiting."

"Ma'am…" the pilot of the craft interrupted, "We are receiving a secure transmission from Chief Yamoto. He wishes to speak to you, says he has the password."

"One sec." Misato said as she rose out of her seat to take the copilots chair where she slid on a head set, "Captain Katsuragi here…"

"…."

"Hope?" Misato parroted back, "Okay we'll take care of this." While keeping the headset in place she commanded, "Get me a channel to Central Dogma."

"MISATO…" Ranma called out, "We don't need a EVA for this, I can handle it."

Sliding one of the ear pieces off of her ear the older woman turned and replied, "We need to keep that thing steady so I can get inside the control room."

"That's not a problem… And who says you are going in there?"

"First off I say so…" Misato fired back, "You have a hard enough time working a basic laptop at school. Something might go wrong and I might have to try to improvise something and you just don't have the skill set for it."

"Okay…" Ranma returned somewhat heatedly, "I'm getting better… Secondly I am the king of improv… So while I don't know all that computer mumbo jumbo stuff I'm pretty sure that I will be able to work something out…"

"Yoiko this isn't something that you can just smash up, one misstep could mean instant meltdown…" Ritsuko put in.

"Still… We are wasting time going back to Tokyo 3 every second we waste that thing gets closer to a populated area. If we act now we can hold if off and then even if things do go wrong at least the damage it causes would be contained to an unpopulated area."

Looking over the redhead in concern Misato knew the younger girl was right, they really didn't have the time to spare. Hindsight being what it was the woman also realized belatedly that if she had wanted to use an Eva to stall Jet alone then she should have already made the arrangements. Wanting to save a little face in the eyes of the younger girl Misato asked, "Not that I am going to let you go ahead and try to take that thing on but lets just say I did let you… What exactly would you do?"

"I don't know." Ranma returned, "But you guy's said that it's just a robot, so unless it has an AT field I should be able to handle it no problem. Does it have an AT field?"

"No it doesn't."

"Well then I should be fine then…" Ranma affirmed.

"I don't know Yoiko, at least with an Eva we know that we can keep it occupied." Ritsuko put in.

"How about this; call ahead for an Eva and while it is being prepped for transport let me have a crack at it that way if I can't handle it back up will be on the way."

"I don't know… Ritsuko? How will Yoiko's suit hold up to radiation?"

"It has slightly higher tolerances that the ones we have on board, and it is a lot more durable." Ritsuko replied.

Signing in defeat Misato nodded over to the pilot and ordered, "Turn us around and get me connected to Central Dogma."

12321

A short time later

12321

Seeing the robot looming into view on the horizon Ranma said, "Hey just take up a position ahead of the robot… Somewhere near those ruins, we don't need to land… Been wanting to test out this glide feature since I got this suit."

"No way…" Misato protested, "We are going to set down and you can exit the transport like a normal person, besides there are two turbines on either side of this transport and you don't want to get too close to either one of them."

"Fine…" Ranma grumbled as she set her head piece in place and activated it consequently sealing herself in the suit.

"Don't worry, we can always schedule some high altitude jumps for training purposes later." Ritsuko comforted.

Growling at the betrayal of her friend in her attempts to keep the younger girl from getting hurt Misato replied, "Absolutely not."

"Now Misato, it's in everyone's best interest for Yoiko to have experience in operating all of the suits functions."

"We are in position, Command has a ETA of 32 minutes with Unit one." The pilot offered as he gently set the transport down.

"Alright, Yoiko this is our stop. I want the transport to take off and maintain it's distance until I radio for extraction." Misato ordered as she hopped off, seeing the gigantic form of Jet alone rapidly gaining on their position she added, "I really hope you know what you are doing."

"So how do you want to do this? You want to stick by me or hang back?" Ranma asked as she lightly stretched a few cramps out.

"I'm sticking with you."

"Okay then." Ranma chirped, "I can work with that."

"So do you have a plan yet?"

"Working on it." Ranma replied as she heard the transport taking off behind her.

"Well if you are going to do something you are going to have to do it soon, preferably before we are turned into pancakes."

"Alright… Fine I got it, just stay close to me incase this doesn't work."

"In case what doesn't work?"

"Well we don't want this thing getting any closer to the city, so first things first." Ranma stated as she began to draw upon her confidence.

Recognizing what the redhead was about to do Misato took a few extra steps back. Rotating her gaze between the looming bulk of Jet Alone and the increasing blue ball of energy she felt it necessary to state, "Any moment now…"

"Just a little more…"

"How much more is a little?" The older of the two asked as she watched the ball of confidence swell to the size of 8 feet in diameter.

"Just about… Moko Takabisha…" Ranma called out as she fired off her attack.

Almost falling off her feet from the backlash of the younger girls attack Misato was unable to track the blasts trajectory and caught totally off guard when a blur swooped in, sweeping her off her feet just moments before a deafening crash followed by a massive wall of dust slammed into her with what she could only equate with being hit by a freight train.

121

Moments later

121

"Well that could have went better." Ranma admitted dryly as she tried to pat some of the excess dirt off of her suit.

"You think…" Misato commented as she tried to glare at the girl but instead wound up staring down a half buried pile of twisted metal due to the layer of dirt on her helmet.

"So where's this hatch at?" Ranma asked as she tried to help Misato in clearing off the dirt obstructing the older woman's vision.

"Near the top on the back…"

"Good, then we're still in this." Ranma fired right back as she watched the robot begin to try to get up. "Unfortunately we are going to have to get a move on it, it's leg is pretty banged up but I don't know how long it's going to remain immobilized."

Sighing as she realized that her helmet was about as clear as it was going to get the purple haired woman agreed, "Let's get a move on it then, times a wasting." Pausing to glance over at Jet Alone she added, "So any idea on how we are both going to get up there?"

Scoffing at her companions question the redhead answered, "That's easy."

"What do you mean?" Misato managed to get out before she was once again swept off her feet.

"So this the hatch?" Ranma asked while adjusting her footing to keep from falling off the robot that had started to slowly crawl forward.

"I don't know…" the woman shot back, "It's kind of hard to tell… the only thing I can see is your gigantic butt."

"Hey… I do not have a big butt!"

'If you say so." Misato teased while the redhead moved her off of her shoulder while keeping a steady hold of her. "Yep that's it, lets get inside before this thing rolls over on us."

121

"Man it's hot in here…"

"Well hopefully we won't be in here for long, the command terminal is just up ahead."

"I'm going to try something…"

"Don't be blasting holes in this thing you could hit something important."

"Relax, Just going to try out the soul of ice, I'm not sure how well it's going to work but at the least it should lower the temp in here a few degrees."

"Just be careful."

"Gotcha."

121

"I know I shouldn't be surprised, but that actually seems to be working somewhat…" Misato complemented as she felt the temperature around her drop considerably.

"I suppose…" Came the deadpan reply as the redhead tried in vain to wipe away the condensation building up on the inside of her helmet.

"Well here we are…"

"Did you enter the code?"

"Does it seem like I entered the code?" Misato ground out as the floor lurched under her signifying the robots continued attempts to stand back up.

Luckily for the older woman though Ranma despite temporarily blinded by a haze of condensation was more than aware enough of her surroundings to reach out and steady the woman before she got a painful introduction to the nearest bulkhead.

"Thanks for the save."

"Anytime…"

"Alright, trying to enter the password now… That's not good…"

"What's not good?"

"Give me a sec, trying again… Yeah, I think we might have a problem." Misato commented as another error message appeared on the screen, "Without the password we're locked out so it's on to plan B."

"Sure… Uh Misato? What's plan B?"

"See those giant cylinders coming out of the wall over there?"

"No not really…"

Ignoring the redheads comment the woman continued, "We are going to try a manual shut down, so all we have to do is slide them back into the wall."

"Sounds pretty easy…" Ranma commented before the robot lurched again, this time sending both her and Misato tumbling backwards.

"Let's just get this over with…" Misato groaned out before shakily climbing to her feet and heading over to the nearest control rod where she began to toil fruitlessly with pushing it back into the wall.

Blindly groping about as the older woman left her to fend for herself Ranma called out, "Misato a little help here… I can't really see anything."

"There are seven of them coming out of the wall right in front of you, just feel your way in…" Feeling the redhead's hands on her own behind she gasped amidst her struggles, "There's no rod in there…"

"Right… Sorry…" Ranma sounded off somewhat unrepentantly before finding a control rod and easily sliding it into place.

121

Huffing and puffing amidst her efforts Misato desperately continued with her struggles with the unmoving control rod.

"Need a hand?"

"No… I'm fine… Just do what you can… If we can't get these back in we're going to withdrawal and let Shinji and Unit 01 try to take care of this."

"Are you sure you don't want any help?"

"Just focus on your own."

"But I already got that one in."

"Well move to the next one then."

"I put that one in too."

"Then move to the one after that…" Misato stated rather heatedly as she took a momentary break to glare at the redhead only to blink at the fact that all the rods with the exception of the one she was working was already in position. "Right well what are you standing around lollygagging about, push this rod into place so we can get out of here."

123454321

Late that night at the Katsuragi home

12321

Staring deeply into her reflection Ranma glanced over with minor annoyance at an empty fishbowl before tentatively setting both her journal and panda plushy next to it. After reaching out with her senses to ensure that everyone else was asleep she took a deep breath and steeled her resolve while locking her eyes into that of her reflections.

"My name is Ranma Saotome and I am a m…."

"Okay… I'm close, I just need to focus more…" Confident that she was almost there the current redhead bit down on her trepidations and willed herself to say the one truth she wanted to say above all others, "My name is Ranma Saotome and I am a mmmmm…"

"I'm close… I can feel it, just one more… Deep breaths… Focus… I am my own master… This is my body and my mind… I will not be controlled!" With sweat pouring down her brow she gripped down on the cheap particle board ledge of her dresser and once again started, "My name is Ranma Saotome and I am a mmmmmmmmmm… Mighty fine smoking hottie!"

Groaning as she brought her head down to the desk top the afore mentioned girl muttered, "At least I'm not lying…"

Abcdefedcba

Notes:

Ranma's armor, think of it as a slightly beefier version of the uniforms in Tron mixed with a plug suit. And a dash of inspector Gadget mixed in for good measure.

Also about the Eva core issue, it is canon that Yui Ikari was absorbed into Unit 1 and that Asuka's mother resides in Unit 02 and while it is only extrapolation as to whom resides in unit 0 whether it is Rei 1 or another fragment of Lilith there is enough evidence in the series that they would need Nodoka for Unit 03's core. Well they think they need Ranko's.

Luckily I've already taken that into consideration

And the final note for this chapter, the Journal and the plushy I added those to try to show that there is some progress being made to reverse what's been done, it's minute at the moment but before my intent was going to let it wear down subtly by having Ranma's thoughts specifically mirror his own words instead of contradicting them as per what I have done in specific instances.

Now some might say that I'm ignoring certain actions that make Ranma uncomfortable like in the previous chapter but my initial intent for those was going to have Ranma be aware of some of those changes. And that brings us to the journal, it's purpose is actually two fold, one part it will allow some entries where Ranma can vent to himself and the other it serves as a very useful source for Rei's mission.

So while there is no entry in the Journal yet, there will be in later chapters.

Anyway thanks for reading and feel free to drop a review if you are so inclined. However, Anonymous reviews are disabled and I won't be turning them back on for this fic.

And I guess I should also state that while doing revisions on this chapter I noticed that I was missing a few b's, this was a technical problem and I think it was resolved so this draft should not be missing any letters if it is feel free to point it out to me.


End file.
